Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1914-01-28

Where Was GoIdsmlth's Deserted
VILLAGE"

II has always been a question as to
whether Goldsmith's Deserted VII.
lage,' which he so picturesquely de
scribes as Sweet Auburnl lovelie6t
village of the plain was wholly an
invention of the poets fancy or
whether II was an actual village that
he was describing. The poem suggests
several deserted villages both in Eng.
land and the United States, but by
several writer's il Is believed that the
village he described was that of little
settlement which lies on the York.
shire coast, near Bridlington, an
others that II was Lissoy. The deser.
ton of the former village was not
caused, however, by the reason assign.
ed by Goldsmith, but by the inroads
OF the sea, which washed away the
church and the whole village, with the
exception of one farmhouse, which no
doubt will also soon disappear, as II
stands on the very edge of the cliff
In all the early copies OF Goldsmiths
Deserted Village" is shown vignette
engraved upon the title page of a de-
serted village presenting place on
the seacoast with the ruined church
at the edge of a cliff, features which
are said to bear striking resem-
blance to those of Auburn, now called
Holderness.
Moore, in his life of Goldsmith. is
of the opinion that the place was Lis
soy. This is a little village a few
miles away from Pallas, County Lin
erick, Ireland, far from the coast. But
he says, ITO attempt to identify any
village described by any poet who
lived before Wordsworth would be as
hazardous a venture as to identify
Windsor Forest from Pope's poem II
he had not provided us with clew
on the title page"
Many of the lines of "The Deserted
Village" were probably suggested by
Goldsmith's recollection OF Lissoy, and
possibly some complaint made about
the depredations of a local landlord,
in letter which he received from his
brother, suggested the humble tragedy
of the poem but ii might be possible
for a hundred villages in England to
substantiate their claim TO be the
original Auburn were the question to
be decided solely because of their an
swering to the details of identification
supplied by the author,
A good many English villages could
no doubt produce their nightingale,
and in that case Lissoy might be east
| ly disqualified for competing for the
coveted position. Regarding Lissoy,
an eminent writer says; Gould any
one have seen the Irish village as II
actually existed when Goldsmith lived
in his fathers factory, assuredly II
never would have entered into any
ones head that Goldsmith had 1t in
his mind when he described the love
I lest village of the plain"
| No doubt, however, Goldsmith had
no idea of reproducing the unsayory
| incidents of village life in Ireland in
the eighteenth century, when he wrote
The Deserted Village" Though II
may be untrue TO Lissoy in many OF
| its details, the poem is still true to
nature in its spirit. its sentiment, ana
above all, its characterization.
Goldsmith lived in this place for
several years. In fact, more than half
his lifetime was spent in Ireland, and
yet it seems to have been thought re-
markable by a good many people that
he should possess so many Of the char.
acteristics OF the Irish and so little
, emphasis placed on this fact by mis-
biographers. II was during these years
in Ireland that his character was form.
ed-that he acquired those traits
which, engraved upon such a nature
as he inherited, caused him TO be the
most unfortunate as well as the best
loved of men.
The perfect picture of the school
master in The Deserted Village" is
said to have been inspired by the
poets recollections of Thomas Byrne,
but equally certain it is that the school
was an English village school and no.
the cabin where Thomas Byrne "shoIl-
dered his crutch and showed how
fields were won"
The Deserted Village" is undoubt-
eddy the best of Goldsmiths poems.
This poem was written in the year
1896. but it was not until the May of
the following year that it was printed.
It is perhaps the most compact poem
ever written and conveys to the reader
sense of the need for every word
that it contains There is no super