"The Village Schoolmaster" by Oliver Goldsmith

                                         The Village Schoolmaster by Oliver Goldsmith

Introduction:

            Oliver Goldsmith was an English poet, playwright, and novelist. His well-known works are The Vicar of the Wakefield, ‘The Deserted Village’, and She Stoops to Conquer. In the poem, “The Village Schoolmaster”, Oliver Goldsmith talks of a school that is situated by a rambling fence with a yellow flowering shrub called furze.

About the Poem:

“There, in his mansion, skill’d to rule”

            The poem portrays an imaginary village school master. The village is empty and deserted as the people have emigrated for a better living. The main cause of the emigration is the enclosure movement also called privatization. The “gazing rustics” admire the school master for his knowledge.

The Village Schoolmaster:

                               “The love he bore to learning was in fault”

            The character of the schoolmaster is described from both the students’ and villagers’ perspective. According to the students the schoolmaster is severe and stern. Everyone including the dropouts are scared on hearing his name and they even predicted disasters on looking at him.  The students pretend to laugh at his jokes, as he had many. They fake laughter as they are really scared of him.

                                             “The village all declar'd how much he knew;”

            The villagers are amused on the knowledge of the school master. They are fascinated on knowing that the schoolmaster could write, cipher, measure lands, predict the tides and calculate most difficult mathematical problems. Additionally, he has the argumentative skill and argued even on knowing his defeat. The villagers admire his use of lengthy words and thundering sounds.

Conclusion:

                                        “That one small head could carry all he knew”

            Oliver Goldsmith mourns the passing away of a village and its community. He both appreciates and gently mocks the schoolmaster for his knowledge, marveling at how one person could possess so much learning. The village now stands empty and desolate—even the flowers on the furze seem sad, as there is no one left to enjoy and admire their beauty. Through this imagery, Goldsmith laments the loss of rural life and the simple pleasures that once animated the village.