The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-08-19
TO THE MEMORY OF
Doctor Oliver Goldsmith
This Metrical Cogitation
of His
"DESERTED VILLAGE"
Is most atfeotionately dedicated by his
disciple in poverty, poetry, and
trust in spirit.
A. LATADY.

rue,
Whose simple lines repeated DER and DER
Discourse new music from their tuneful
store:
Whose every verse bespeaks the generous
mind.
Believing in the good in humankind
How often have paused to hear you tell
OF that dear person you describe so we'll,
Though repeated oft, It's sweet to know
There are good hearts where such ideals
gov:
NY heart, responsive, lifts my thoughts On
To your tall cliff with summit in the sky;
Around its breast I see the gathering
storm.
Ny mental eye discerns It's lower form,
feel. with thee, its head is bathed in
And that beyond the tempest all is
bright
What heart devoid of faith In human kind,
Would let such figure steal upon the
mind,
To parallel the height to which It's given.
For those to rise, thoughts have rest in
heaven?
With thee I've stood beside some lowly
And listened to the words the good man
said
Unto the parting soul which aualSed with
fear,
Until thy reverend champion gathered
near.
Such are the charms that thou canst make
And know, and love thy characters with
thee.
What man instructed at country school,
But knows thy village master skilled to
rule
Sees him with ponpous men approach the
That trembled in their boots his face to
view,
Historically laugh when on his face
The semblance of smile their fanc.es
trace
Recalls with doubt and certainty COM
hined.
The vast achievements of his single mind,
And that. the Justice Of the Peace ex-
copied.
His Judgment was by all the world re-
spected.
I hear him call the class in "Algebrae,"
I heard him call it once and rued the
day,
When he the value quer!ed Of the x,
When X square minus x did equal SIX
Sisht-reading, too. in Latin. was Whi1n;
Who Flesitated least stood best with him.
Another will no doubt recall the day
When on the board was spread for an es-
say
per totam nocten1 CAMS vigilat"
Will dncognitus please translate "us" that
He. bold for favor, but with Quaktng
soul
Translated: Dogs watch darkness through
hole"
TcA hnf
been there,
Thou wouldst not doubt the homage pay
To thee and thine. and all the village
train
Thou hast depicted in thy sweet refrain.
His love of learning was your school
mans fault
With love of learning was my school man
fraught
And had I not the faith which thou has
would not give such credit to mine
own.
He's without heroes whose contracted
Denies the power and virtue In man
That man whose heart conceves no high
Ne'er harbored faith in heroes 'mongst the
His sluggish, mind unequal to the flight.
Denies that others can attain the height
Sweet bard, thou master of the rhymers
Thy love of nature doth thy charm i'm
Thou art past master in the power to
A shifting scens with unaffected grace:
The painter can with no mime brush por-
tray
The rising sun, the radiant birth OF day.
Lift from the vale the Cloudy n!stS u
night
And midway place them on the mountain
height,
There in its fostering shade TO shuliS anu
hide
Till by the rising sun they arc espied'
PM here his power has attained its height,
The mist will never vanish from the sight
Fixed to the eye his brush has done us
best.
NJ magic power to change at his behest-
Thou, sweet magician with poetlc p'"a W.
Dost change the scene to SUIT inc vary
in: hour
Join in the chase, pursue 'iie 1it-'''
Until tbev vanish from the musng eye.
The smiling landscape with thy touch IN
fold. -,
And DER it spread a filmy cloth OF soio.
Rouse slumberng nature from her dfoWsS
seep.
The rising sun, the rosy morn to greet.
Awake the laughing waters as they run
And make them dance and sparkle IN me
sun.
Or. when it suits thee, choke its weedy
way
And hide its waters from the light of
day.
Familiar sounds of village life we hear,
Thou rnak'st them echo on my listening
car.
The sa5bling geese, the milkmaid's CHEEKY
The loving herd responding to their
The eye and ear thou dost at once be-
sui.e, -bn,
Appealing to our very hearts the while:
Such are the pleasures that thy lines i'm
These are thy charms without feint at
art.
Simplicity pervades thy sweetest lay
And kind bea3snity directs thy way
\ kind benicn;ty that mourns land
of men By trades unfeellnS hand |