Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Deserted Village (Author: Oliver Goldsmith)
p.23
- 1] Sweet
AUBURN! loveliest village of the plain,
2] Where health and plenty cheer'd the labouring swain,
3] Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,
4] And parting summer's lingering blooms delay'd:
5] Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,
6] Seats of my youth, when every sport could please:
7] How often have I loiter'd o'er thy green,
8] Where humble happiness endear'd each scene!
9] How often have I paused on every charm,
10] The shelter'd cot, the cultivated farm,
11] The never-failing brook, the busy mill,
12] The decent church that topp'd the neighbouring hill;
13] The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,
14] For talking age and whisp'ring lovers made!
15] How often have I bless'd the coming day,
16] When toil, remitting, lent its turn to play,
17] And all the village train, from labour free,
18] Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree!
19] While many a pastime circled in the shade,
20] The young contending as the old survey'd;
p.24
21] And many a gambol frolick'd o'er the ground,
22] And sleights of art and feats of strength went round;
23] And still, as each repeated pleasure tir'd,
24] Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspir'd;
25] The dancing pair that simply sought renown,
26] By holding out to tire each other down;
27] The swain mistrustless of his smutted face,
28] While secret laughter titter'd round the place;
29] The bashful virgin's side-long looks of love;
30] The matron's glance, that would those looks reprove;
31] These were thy charms, sweet village; sports like these,
32] With sweet succession, taught e'en toil to please;
33] These round thy bowers their cheerful influence shed;
34] These were thy charms—But all these charms are fled.
- 35] Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn,
36] Thy sports are fled, and all thy charms withdrawn;
37] Amidst thy bowers the tyrant's hand is seen,
38] And Desolation saddens all thy green:
39] One only master grasps the whole domain,
40] And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain.
41] No more thy glassy brook reflects the day,
42] But, chok'd with sedges, works its weedy way.
43] Along thy glades, a solitary guest,
44] The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest;
45] Amidst thy desert walks the lapwing flies,
46] And tires their echoes with unvaried cries.
47] Sunk are thy bowers in shapeless ruin all,
48] And the long grass o'ertops the mould'ring wall
49] And, trembling, shrinking from the spoiler's hand,
50] Far, far away thy children leave the land.
p.25
- 51] Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ills a prey,
52] Where wealth accumulates, and men decay:
53] Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
54] A breath can make them, as a breath has made:
55] But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
56] When once destroy'd, can never be supplied.
- 57] A time there was, ere
England's griefs began,
58] When every rood of ground maintain'd its man;
59] For him light labour spread her wholesome store,
60] Just gave what life requir'd, but gave no more:
61] His best companions, innocence and health;
62] And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.
- 63] But times are alter'd; trade's unfeeling train
64] Usurp the land, and dispossess the swain;
65] Along the lawn, where scatter'd hamlets rose,
66] Unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose;
67] And every want to opulence allied,
68] And every pang that folly pays to pride.
69] Those gentle hours that plenty bade to bloom,
70] Those calm desires that ask'd but little room,
71] Those healthful sports that grac'd the peaceful scene,
72] Liv'd in each look, and brighten'd all the green;
73] These, far departing, seek a kinder shore,
74] And rural mirth and manners are no more.
- 75] Sweet
AUBURN! parent of the blissful hour,
76] Thy glades forlorn confess the tyrant's power,
77] Here, as I take my solitary rounds,
78] Amidst thy tangling walks and ruin'd grounds,
79] And, many a year elaps'd, return to view
80] Where once the cottage stood, the hawthorn grew,
p.26
81] Remembrance wakes with all her busy train,
82] Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain.
- 83] In all my wand'rings through this world of care,
84] In all my griefs—and God has given my share—
85] I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown,
86] Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down;
87] To husband out life's taper at the close,
88] And keep the flame from wasting by repose:
89] I still had hopes, for pride attends us still,
90] Amidst the swains to show my book-learn'd skill,
91] Around my fire an evening group to draw,
92] And tell of all I felt, and all I saw;
93] And, as a hare, whom hounds and horns pursue,
94] Pants to the place from whence at first she flew,
95] I still had hopes, my long vexations pass'd,
96] Here to return—and die at home at last.
- 97] O blest retirement, friend to life's decline,
98] Retreats from care, that never must be mine,
99] How blest is he who crowns in shades like these,
100] A youth of labour with an age of ease;
101] Who quits a world where strong temptations try,
102] And, since 'tis hard to combat, learns to fly!
103] For him no wretches, born to work and weep,
104] Explore the mine, or tempt the dangerous deep;
105] No surly porter stands in guilty state,
106] To spurn imploring famine from the gate;
107] But on he moves to meet his latter end,
108] Angels around befriending Virtue's friend;
109] Sinks to the grave with unperceived decay,
110] While Resignation gently slopes the way;
p.27
111] And, all his prospects bright'ning to the last,
112] His heaven commences ere the world be pass'd!
- 113] Sweet was the sound, when oft at evening's close,
114] Up yonder hill the village murmur rose;
115] There, as I pass'd with careless steps and slow,
116] The mingling notes came soften'd from below;
117] The swain responsive as the milk-maid sung,
118] The sober herd that low'd to meet their young,
119] The noisy geese that gobbled o'er the pool,
120] The playful children just let loose from school;
121] The watchdog's voice that bay'd the whisp'ring wind,
122] And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind;
123] These all in sweet confusion sought the shade,
124] And fill'd each pause the nightingale had made.
125] But now the sounds of population fail,
126] No cheerful murmurs fluctuate in the gale,
127] No busy steps the grass-grown foot-way tread
128] But all the bloomy flush of life is fled.
129] All but yon widow'd, solitary thing,
130] That feebly bends beside the plashy spring;
131] She, wretched matron, forc'd, in age, for bread,
132] To strip the brook with mantling cresses spread,
133] To pick her wintry faggot from the thorn,
134] To seek her nightly shed, and weep till morn;
135] She only left of all the harmless train,
136] The sad historian of the pensive plain.
- 137] Near yonder copse, where once the garden smil'd,
138] And still where many a garden flower grows wild,
139] There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose,
140] The village preacher's modest mansion rose.
p.28
141] A man he was to all the country dear,
142] And passing rich with forty pounds a year.
143] Remote from towns he ran his godly race,
144] Nor e'er had chang'd, nor wished to change, his place;
145] Unpractis'd he to fawn, or seek for power
146] By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour;
147] Far other aims his heart had learned to prize,
148] More skill'd to raise the wretched than to rise.
149] His house was known to all the vagrant train;
150] He chid their wand'rings, but reliev'd their pain;
151] The long-remember'd beggar was his guest,
152] Whose beard descending swept his aged breast;
153] The ruin'd spendthrift, now no longer proud,
154] Claim'd kindred there, and had his claims allow'd;
155] The broken soldier, kindly bade to stay,
156] Sat by his fire, and talk'd the night away;
157] Wept o'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done,
158] Shoulder'd his crutch, and show'd how fields were won.
159] Pleas'd with his guests, the good man learn'd to glow,
160] And quite forgot their vices in their woe;
161] Careless their merits or their faults to scan,
162] His pity gave ere charity began.
- 163] Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride,
164] And even his failings lean'd to Virtue's side;
165] But in his duty prompt at every call,
166] He watch'd and wept, he pray'd and felt, for all:
167] And, as a bird each fond endearment tries,
168] To tempt its new-fledg'd offspring to the skies,
169] He tried each art, reprov'd each dull delay,
170] Allur'd to brighter worlds, and led the way.
p.29
- 171] Beside the bed where parting life was laid,
172] And sorrow, guilt, and pain, by turns dismay'd,
173] The reverend champion stood. At his control,
174] Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul;
175] Comfort came down the trembling wretch to raise,
176] And his last falt'ring accents whisper'd praise.
- 177] At church, with meek and unaffected grace,
178] His looks adorn'd the venerable place;
179] Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway,
180] And fools, who came to scoff, remain'd to pray.
181] The service pass'd, around the pious man
182] With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran;
183] E'en children follow'd, with endearing wile,
184] And pluck'd his gown, to share the good man's smile;
185] His ready smile a parent's warmth express'd;
186] Their welfare pleas'd him, and their cares distress'd;
187] To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given
188] But all his serious thoughts had rest in Heaven.
189] As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form,
190] Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,
191] Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
192] Eternal sunshine settles on its head.
- 193] Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way,
194] With blossom'd furze unprofitably gay,
195] There, in his noisy mansion, skill'd to rule,
196] The village master taught his little school;
197] A man severe he was, and stern to view;
198] I knew him well, and every truant knew:
199] Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace
200] The day's disasters in his morning face;
p.30
201] Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee
202] At all his jokes, for many a joke had he;
203] Full well the busy whisper, circling round,
204] Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd;.
205] Yet he was kind; or if severe in aught,
206] The love he bore to learning was in fault;
207] The village all declared how much he knew;
208] 'Twas certain he could write, and cypher too;
209] Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,
210] And e'en the story ran that he could gauge.
211] In arguing too, the parson own'd his skill,
212] For e'en though vanquish'd, he could argue still;
213] While words of learned length and thund'ring sound
214] Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around,
215] And still they gaz'd, and still the wonder grew,
216] That one small head could carry all he knew.
- 217] But past is all his fame. The very spot
218] Where many a time he triumph'd, is forgot.
219] Near yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high,
220] Where once the sign-post caught the passing eye,
221] Now lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspir'd,
222] Where grey-beard mirth and smiling toil retir'd,
223] Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound,
224] And news much older than their ale went round.
225] Imagination fondly stoops to trace
226] The parlour splendours of that festive place;
227] The white-wash'd wall, the nicely sanded floor,
228] The varnish'd clock that click'd behind the door;
229] The chest, contriv'd a double debt to pay,
230] A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day;
p.31
231] The pictures plac'd for ornament and use,
232] The twelve good rules, the royal game of goose;
233] The hearth, except when winter chill'd the day,
234] With aspen boughs, and flowers, and fennel gay;
235] While broken tea-cups, wisely kept for show,
236] Ranged o'er the chimney, glisten'd in a row.
- 237] Vain, transitory splendours! Could not all
238] Reprieve the tottering mansion from its fall!
239] Obscure it sinks, nor shall it more impart
240] An hour's importance to the poor man's heart.
241] Thither no more the peasant shall repair,
242] To sweet oblivion of his daily care;
243] No more the farmer's news, the barber's tale,
244] No more the wood-man's ballad shall prevail;
245] No more the smith his dusky brow shall clear,
246] Relax his pond'rous strength, and lean to hear;
247] The host himself no longer shall be found
248] Careful to see the mantling bliss go round;
249] Nor the coy maid, half willing to be press'd,
250] Shall kiss the cup to pass it to the rest.
- 251] Yes! let the rich deride, the proud disdain,
252] These simple blessings of the lowly train;
253] To me more dear, congenial to my heart,
254] One native charm, than all the gloss of art;
255] Spontaneous joys, where Nature has its play,
256] The soul adopts, and owns their first-born sway;
257] Lightly they frolic o'er the vacant mind,
258] Unenvied, unmolested, unconfin'd:
259] But the long pomp, the midnight masquerade,
260] With all the freaks of wanton wealth array'd,
p.32
261] In these, ere triflers half their wish obtain,
262] The toiling pleasure sickens into pain;
263] And, even while fashion's brightest arts decoy,
264] The heart distrusting asks, if this be joy.
- 265] Ye friends to truth, ye statesmen, who survey
266] The rich man's joys increase, the poor's decay,
267] 'Tis yours to judge how wide the limits stand
268] Between a splendid and a happy land.
269] Proud swells the tide with loads of freighted ore,
270] And shouting Folly hails them from her shore;
271] Hoards, e'en beyond the miser's wish, abound,
272] And rich men flock from all the world around.
273] Yet count our gains. This wealth is but a name
274] That leaves our useful products still the same.
275] Not so the loss. The man of wealth and pride
276] Takes up a space that many poor supplied;
277] Space for his lake, his park's extended bounds,
278] Space for his horses, equipage, and hounds;
279] The robe that wraps his limbs in silken sloth
280] Has robb'd the neighbouring fields of half their growth,
281] His seat, where solitary sports are seen,
282] Indignant spurns the cottage from the green;
283] Around the world each needful product flies,
284] For all the luxuries the world supplies:
285] While thus the land, adorn'd for pleasure, all
286] In barren splendour feebly waits the fall.
- 287] As some fair female, unadorn'd and plain,
288] Secure to please while youth confirms her reign,
289] Slights every borrow'd charm that dress supplies,
290] Nor shares with art the triumph of her eyes:
p.33
291] But when those charms are pass'd, for charms are frail,
292] When time advances, and when lovers fail,
293] She then shines forth, solicitous to bless,
294] In all the glaring impotence of dress.
295] Thus fares the land, by luxury betray'd;
296] In nature's simplest charms at first array'd;
297] But verging to decline, its splendours rise,
298] Its vistas strike, its palaces surprise;
299] While, scourg'd by famine from the smiling land
300] The mournful peasant leads his humble band;
301] And while he sinks, without one arm to save,
302] The country blooms—a garden and a grave.
- 303] Where, then, ah! where shall poverty reside,
304] To 'scape the pressure of contiguous pride?
305] If to some common's fenceless limits stray'd,
306] He drives his flock to pick the scanty blade,
307] Those fenceless fields the sons of wealth divide,
308] And e'en the bare-worn common is denied.
- 309] If to the city sped—What waits him there?
310] To see profusion that he must not share;
311] To see ten thousand baneful arts combin'd
312] To pamper luxury and thin mankind;
313] To see each joy the sons of pleasure know
314] Extorted from his fellow-creature's woe:
315] Here, while the courtier glitters in brocade,
316] There the pale artist plies the sickly trade;
317] Here, while the proud their long-drawn pomp display,
318] There the black gibbet glooms beside the way.
319] The dome where Pleasure holds her midnight reign,
320] Here, richly deck'd, admits the gorgeous train;
p.34
321] Tumultuous grandeur crowds the blazing square,
322] The rattling chariots clash, the torches glare.
323] Sure scenes like these no troubles e'er annoy!
324] Sure these denote one universal joy!
325] Are these thy serious thoughts?—Ah, turn thine eyes
326] Where the poor houseless shiv'ring female lies.
327] She once, perhaps, in village plenty bless'd,
328] Has wept at tales of innocence distress'd;
329] Her modest looks the cottage might adorn,
330] Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn;
331] Now lost to all; her friends, her virtue, fled,
332] Near her betrayer's door she lays her head,
333] And, pinch'd with cold, and, shrinking from the shower,
334] With heavy heart deplores that luckless hour,
335] When idly first, ambitious of the town,
336] She left her wheel, and robes of country brown.
- 337] Do thine, sweet
AUBURN, thine, the loveliest train,
338] Do thy fair tribes participate her pain?
339] E'en now, perhaps, by cold and hunger led,
340] At proud men's doors they ask a little bread!
- 341] Ah, no. To distant climes, a dreary scene,
342] Where half the convex world intrudes between,
343] Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go,
344] Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe.
345] Far different there from all that charm'd before,
346] The various terrors of that horrid shore;
347] Those blazing suns that dart a downward ray,
348] And fiercely shed intolerable day;
349] Those matted woods where birds forget to sing,
350] But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling;
p.35
351] Those poisonous fields, with rank luxuriance crown'd,
352] Where the dark scorpion gathers death around;
353] Where at each step the stranger fears to wake
354] The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake;
355] Where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey,
356] And savage men more murderous still than they:
357] While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies,
358] Mingling the ravag'd landscape with the skies.
359] Far different these from every former scene,
360] The cooling brook, the grassy-vested green,
361] The breezy covert of the warbling grove,
362] That only shelter'd thefts of harmless love.
- 363] Good Heaven! what sorrows gloom'd that parting day,
364] That call'd them from their native walks away;
365] When the poor exiles, every pleasure pass'd,
366] Hung round their bowers, and fondly look'd their last,
367] And took a long farewell, and wish'd in vain,
368] For seats like these beyond the western main;
369] And shudd'ring still to face the distant deep,
370] Return'd and wept, and still return'd to weep.
371] The good old sire, the first prepared to go
372] To new-found worlds, and wept for others' woe;
373] But for himself, in conscious virtue brave,
374] He only wish'd for worlds beyond the grave.
375] His lovely daughter, lovelier in her tears,
376] The fond companion of his helpless years,
377] Silent went next, neglectful of her charms,
378] And left a lover's for a father's arms.
379] With louder plaints the mother spoke her woes,
380] And bless'd the cot where every pleasure rose,
p.36
381] And kiss'd her thoughtless babes with many a tear,
382] And clasp'd them close, in sorrow doubly dear;
383] Whilst her fond husband strove to lend relief
384] In all the silent manliness of grief.
- 385] O Luxury! thou curs'd by Heaven's decree,
386] How ill exchang'd are things like these for thee!
387] How do thy potions, with insidious joy,
388] Diffuse their pleasures only to destroy!
389] Kingdoms, by thee to sickly greatness grown,
390] Boast of a florid vigour not their own;
391] At every draught more large and large they grow,
392] A bloated mass of rank unwieldy woe;
393] Till sapp'd their strength, and every part unsound,
394] Down, down they sink, and spread a ruin round.
- 395] E'en now the devastation is begun,
396] And half the business of destruction done;
397] E'en now, methinks, as pond'ring here I stand,
398] I see the rural virtues leave the land:
399] Down where yon anchoring vessel spreads the sail,
400] That idly waiting flaps with ev'ry gale,
401] Downward they move, a melancholy band,
402] Pass from the shore, and darken all the strand.
403] Contented toil, and hospitable care,
404] And kind connubial tenderness are there;
405] And piety with wishes placed above,
406] And steady loyalty, and faithful love.
407] And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid
408] Still first to fly where sensual joys invade;
409] Unfit, in these degenerate times of shame,
410] To catch the heart, or strike for honest fame;
p.37
411] Dear charming nymph, neglected and decried,
412] My shame in crowds, my solitary pride;
413] Thou source of all my bliss, and all my woe,
414] That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so;
415] Thou guide by which the nobler arts excel,
416] Thou nurse of every virtue, fare thee well!
417] Farewell! and Oh! where'er thy voice be tried,
418] On Torno's cliffs, or Pambamarca's side,
419] Whether where equinoctial fervours glow,
420] Or winter wraps the polar world in snow,
421] Still let thy voice, prevailing over time,
422] Redress the rigours of th' inclement clime;
423] Aid slighted truth; with thy persuasive strain
424] Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain;
425] Teach him that states of native strength possess'd,
426] Though very poor, may still be very bless'd;
427] That trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay,
428] As ocean sweeps the labour'd mole away;
429] While self-dependent power can time defy,
430] As rocks resist the billows and the sky.