The Deserted Village is quite a long poem, 430 lines toexact. All the lines are given in heroic couplets. It is clear that OliverGoldsmith as poet is person that is being mentioned in the poem. Thefirst-person narration is used to express the passing of a way of life.Title already gives away the theme of this poem, whichis about a deserted village. The poem can be divided into three sections: a descriptionof the village as it used to be at the time of Goldsmiths youth.
This isfollowed by a description of the village how to village looks today, todayas in the day it was written of course and finally last section that detailslife in America, where the occupants of Auburn have gone. Auburn has been identifiedas Lissoy in Ireland, this is the poet’s hometown. In the first paragraphs ofthe poem, Auburn is, strangely enough, described as if it were an Englishtown. The details and images of life in this rustic villageare consistently English: He creates a picture of rustic life in England whentimes were much simpler and land was owned and used commonly by all the farmerstogether. The people were good and were united by common purpose, living inaccord with nature. This interconnection of everything in nature is somethingis we can now say clearly defines 18th century poetry since it wasalso the main subject in the last to poems and once again we see it here.
This living according with nature is now gone. Thepoet explains that he had wanted to retire in Auburn, where he had fantasizedthat nightly around a fire on the village common he would tell stories and share with villagers hisbook-learning and other experiences. He has returned to find the village deserted,in a state of rust and decay. As he looks around the empty village variousimages and memories come to mind. The village is deserted because its occupants havebeen forced to leave.
The government had put an end to the common land.Villagers were either left to move to the city or else migrate to America. The poetdescribes America as flooded with fierce animals as well as savage people andhe paints a big contrast between their original idyllic life here in thevillage and the murderous savagery over there in America.The poet main focus of this poem is the passing away of the simple joysof nature.
Rich people may be tempted to see these simple joys as something ofthe poor. I think everyone can relatethat the these ode to nature have something crude and unsophisticated aboutthem. The poet feels that celebrating the simple natural joys of nature are more appealing and then allartificial polish of the pleasures that are being enjoyed by rich. This celebratingof the joys of nature makes it fitting for this collections of poems and makesit fit in the Tintern Abbey and Spring.
