ENG 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: The Deserted Village, Mother 3, Upper Class
27 Jan 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Oliver Goldsmith - The Deserted Village
Biography Notes
●Baffling discrepancy btw his success in writing and his oddity in conversation
●Born in ireland
●Strong desire to be liked and impress others
●The deserted village
recasts an argument Goldsmith had voiced against the acquisition of
rural acreage by merchants who, having acquired their wealth by the commerce of empire
and trade in luxuries, were now bent on converting their new-bought lands from
productive communal pasture into pretty pleasure grounds
●Critiqued the “annihilation of graceful country tradition”
○Mingled nostalgia for a rural past w/ dread of a commercial future
○Conservative defense of old values produces new + volatile empathy w/ plight of
the poor
Poem Notes
❖1st person narration expressing lamentation → passing of a way of life
❖3 main sections
➢Description of the village as it used to be at the time of the poet’s youth
➢Description of the village “today” in poet’s maturity
➢Concluding section that details life in America where the occupants of Auburn
have gone
❖Pastoral poetry (loosely?) - depiction of rustic characters and life
❖Man lines contain alliteration
❖Iambic pentameter
❖“Auburn” is representative of all such small villages at the time of which the poet writes
➢Village life idealised
Thomas Gray - Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Biography Notes
●Drawn toward silence
●Irascible father + doting mother
●3 schoolmates:
○Richard West - inspired his poems
○Thomas Ashton - inspired unique use of language? eloquence?
○Horace Walpole (son of the prime minister) - sponsored the publication of his
poems
●Homosexual
●Enrolled in Cambridge → one of the most learned scholars alive
●West died of tuberculosis → subject of some of his sonnets
Document Summary
Baffling discrepancy btw his success in writing and his oddity in conversation. Strong desire to be liked and impress others. Critiqued the annihilation of graceful country tradition . Mingled nostalgia for a rural past w/ dread of a commercial future. Conservative defense of old values produces new + volatile empathy w/ plight of the poor. 1st person narration expressing lamentation passing of a way of life. Description of the village as it used to be at the time of the poet"s youth. Description of the village today in poet"s maturity. Concluding section that details life in america where the occupants of auburn have gone. Auburn is representative of all such small villages at the time of which the poet writes. Thomas gray - elegy written in a country churchyard. Horace walpole (son of the prime minister) - sponsored the publication of his poems. Enrolled in cambridge one of the most learned scholars alive.
