The Deserted Village | ANALYSIS

THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

Goldsmith's The Deserted Village was published in 1770. The town was named Lissoy in Ireland. It was exceptionally near the writer's local spot. A significant occasion occurred, and this was the essential driver that actuated Goldsmith to compose the poem. General Napper bought the home where the town was arranged. He served sees on the occupants for ejectment. They had to leave the land and rendered landless. The sonnet gives a portrayal of the scenes both in and about Lissoy. Lissoy is the admired Auburn.

Auburn is a combination of incongruous parts-a prosperous English village and a decayed Irish village. Lissoy was certainly the village which Goldsmith had in mind when he wrote The Deserted Village. It has been transformed into the sweet name of Auburn by his imagination by combining his Irish Tecollections and English experience. The poet has expressed his love for rural life in this poem. The poem laments the loss of rural delights and pastoral sports, and the poet recollects the sweet Auburn and champions the cause of Country-folk. The poet is critical of the industrialisation of the land which marred and destroyed the simple, innocent pleasures of rural areas.

Industrial growth and increased wealth and luxuries brought enormous problems. It gave birth to destitution, poverty and miseries to which the poor, rustics were subjected. Their small villages and cottages had been demolished. They had been displaced from their arable land. Their pastures, and woodlands had been converted into industrial areas. The innocent pleasures, amusements and Occupations of the villages had been destroyed. All the aspirations of the Common mass of mankind had been undone by the god of Mammon. The poet believed in socialism, and always lent his moral support to the poor championed ;their cause. He was against industrialism and had criticized accumulation of wealth and luxuries.

The poet writes that wealth and luxury sap the internal strength of the country. They force a large scale migration from the rural to urban places. The poem teaches us to depend more on the natural resources of one's own country than  on other foreign trade.

Teach him, that states of native strength possest

Thou' very poor, may still be very blest.

The trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay,

As ocean sweeps the laboured mole away.

He forbids us to depend on foreign trade because in his opinion it breerde greed, avarice and tendency to luxury in us. It is the poet's aim to present a contrast between agriculture and commerce. He maintains that agriculture is the most worthy pursuit both as regards individual happiness as well as national prosperity. He believes that dependence on indigenous resources strengthens the nation.

The theme of the poet thrives on two major clements - these are descriptions of the past prosperity and the present desolation of the village and reflection on the rural bliss and evils of luxury and urban life. The poet describes the pleasure of rural life as something far superior to pompous festivities of the luxurious. In his opinion a country which is deprived of its sturdy peasantry moves towards its ruin. It is correct that wealth and luxury demoralise people and sap the internal strength of a state. The nations cannot really prosper and be great, if it is steeped in luxury. Wealth and luxury bring many evils in their train but they do not necessarily bring about depopulation. Wealth is not absolutely an evil. It has its good side also. People earn their livelihood and support their families. Only a few people are demoralised by wealth Hence, the theory that wealth and luxury demoralise the whole mass of people is incorrect.

The Deserted Village contains Goldsmith's doctrines related to life, and the nation. He enunciates that commerce begets wealth, wealth begets luxury, luxury decimates the rural population and weakens the nation. Rural virtues only provide permanent prosperity and bliss. Poverty does not hinder happiness as it depends on native strength. Towns generate vices, and virtues prevail in rural places. The peasants are the back bone of a nation. Land should be distributed among the farmers. A nation cannot make progress or go ahead any field if one whole state is usurped by one man and if the peasants are deprived of land to grow crops. If cultivation is neglected, the ruin of a nation  is a foregone conclusion. The poet stresses the need of the preservation rural virtues and the prevention of the evils of luxury.

Goldsmith praises the retirement of time of life. Retirement is congenia old age. It makes a man happy. A retired man enjoys a blessed life in the. country Retirement frees a man from evil temptations with which this world beset. A man in retirement passes the later part of his life in ease and comfort. He remains untouched by the evil temptations of the world. He leads a simple life and is hospitable to his fellow-beings. He resigns everything to the will of God and ready to embrace his death cheerfully, and when he breathes his last, he does it without any bodily struggle and mental agonies.

The poem gives living pictures of a village preacher and a school master. The village preacher is a simple fellow; he was indifferent to worldly prosperity. He followed the dictates of his won mind. Self-aggrandisement was not the sole motive of his life. He learnt more to raise the wretched than to risk himself. He was a man whose heart was filled with kindness, sympathy and humanitarianism. He was an available man. He always tríed to improve the moral and spiritual condition of his flock and he shared with then their griecf and

joys but they could not disturb his serious thoughts which gave him infinite joy. In pain and anguish he was a ministering angel. He sympathised with those sinner who was oppressed by a sense of guilty for the sins he had committed He convinced him of the infinite mercy of God. He also conceived such a repentant sinner of the true repentance removing despair and anguish from his mind.

The poet has depicted the village school master as a strict disciplinarian. He imposed punishment on those pupils who stayed away from the classes and neglected their studies. Yet he was a kind-hearted man. He was a prodigy learning in the eyes of the illiterate rustics. The villagers admired him for his

vast knowledge. He was ideal in the eyes of the villagers.

Goldsmith is a man of great wisdom. He is well-experienced in the essence of life and the meaning of worldly life. He has give a beautiful definition of happiness which consists not in the pomp and splendour or in the possession of large sums of money but in passing a life of virtuous seclusion. A true happy man is free from the temptations of the world. He must prefer a life of simplicity and innocence. He owns no mines of gold or silver, where hundreds of poor labourers are doomed to hard work and suffering. He rises above the cares and joys of the world and reposes his hope in Heaven. He dies a painless death

as he submits himself to the will of God.

The poem is didactic in theme. It simply teaches us rural virtues. It inspires us to lenda simple and natural life. It gives the value of hospitality, pity, steady loyalty and faithful love. It also teaches us to depend on the natural and national resources and not on foreign trade, commerce, manufacture, etc. It aims at inspiring us to embrace rural virtues and to give up luxury and greed for wealth. It also inspires us to cultivate a moral and spiritual life. Worldliness disturbs peace of mind and darkens our souls

The poem records Goldsmith's affection and profound love of ;the local town. Reddish is the lovely name given to his local town, Lissoy. It was in this Irish Town and the artist passed his youth and childhood days. He adoredand glorified the town. He extols the town as the homestead of harmony and bliss and bounty. He had himself appreciated the delights of rustic life  encountered all the brutalities and insensitivity of city life. empathy and compassion toward the poor are communicated in this sonnet, He stood apart as the victor of poor people and the oppressed, The sonnet is likewise expressive of the poct's exceptional love of verse. He was an admirer and adorer of the goddess of verse. It is verse that continued him all the difficulties and mishaps of life. He overcame a lot of hardships of life. 

The poem is pleasant. It contains magnificent musicality. It is melodic in articulation. The psyche treasures them for their fact. Sentiment administers the subject as the writer gives a record of the pitiable state of the poor workers and the obliteration of ural euphoria and satisfaction brought about by the spread of industrialism. His depiction of rustic landscape, his town representations, his good, political and old style implications are completely recognized for their normal and satisfying character The magnificence of the sonnet lies not in speculations and theorizings yet in its rank effortlessness and genuine human compassion. The writer's grand idea and vision comprise the general intrigue of the sonnet. The sonnet is philosophical and instructive.