The Deserted Village
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1770
- Form
- Lyric poetry
- Language
- English
- Length
- Short · 20 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendSelected WritingsCarcanet (Fyfield Books), 2003Has The Deserted Village and The Traveller with the best of the prose; any Goldsmith selection will serve.
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A poem of about 430 lines in heroic couplets remembering Auburn, an idealised English village of the poet's youth, and finding it emptied. The first half recalls its parson, schoolmaster, alehouse and evening games; the second describes the enclosure of the common land by a single rich landowner, the flight of the villagers to the city and to America, and the departure of Poetry itself. Goldsmith's dedication to Reynolds insists that the depopulation he describes is real. It was widely read as a protest against luxury and enclosure.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns The Deserted Village are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.