Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. VII, December 1850, Vol. II

Various

Various

Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. VII, December 1850, Vol. II

THE DESERTED VILLAGE

BY OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain,

Where health and plenty cheer'd the laboring swain,

Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,

And parting summer's lingering blooms delay'd —

Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,

Seats of my youth, when every sport could please —

How often have I loiter'd o'er thy green,

Where humble happiness endear'd each scene;

How often have I paus'd on every charm —

The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm,

The never failing brook, the busy mill,

The decent church that topp'd the neighboring hill,

The hawthorn bush with seats beneath the shade

For talking age and whispering lovers made;

How often have I bless'd the coming day

When toil remitting lent its turn to play,

And all the village train from labor free,

Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree —

While many a pastime circled in the shade,

The young contending as the old survey'd,

And many a gambol frolick'd o'er the ground,

And sleights of art and feats of strength went round:

And still, as each repeated pleasure tir'd,

Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspir'd —

The dancing pair that simply sought renown

By holding out to tire each other down,

The swain mistrustless of his smutted face

While secret laughter titter'd round the place,

The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love,

The matron's glance that would those looks reprove.

These were thy charms, sweet village! sports like these,

With sweet succession, taught even toil to please;

These round thy bowers their cheerful influence shed;

These were thy charms – but all these charms are fled.

Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn,

Thy sports are fled, and all thy charms withdrawn;

Amid thy bowers the tyrant's hand is seen,

And desolation saddens all thy green:

One only master grasps the whole domain,

And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain.

No more thy glassy brook reflects the day,

But chok'd with sedges works its weedy way;

Along thy glades, a solitary guest,

The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest;

Amid thy desert-walks the lapwing flies,

And tires their echoes with unvaried cries;

Sunk are thy bowers in shapeless ruin all,

And the long grass o'ertops the mouldering wall;

And, trembling, shrinking from the spoiler's hand,

Far, far away thy children leave the land.

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,

Where wealth accumulates and men decay;

Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade —

A breath can make them, as a breath has made;

But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,

When once destroy'd, can never be supplied.

A time there was, ere England's griefs began,

When every rood of ground maintain'd its man:

For him light labor spread her wholesome store,

Just gave what life requir'd, but gave no more;

His best companions, innocence and health,

And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

But times are altered; trade's unfeeling train

Usurp the land, and dispossess the swain:

Along the lawn, where scatter'd hamlets rose,

Unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose:

And every want to opulence allied,

And every pang that folly pays to pride.

These gentle hours that plenty bade to bloom,

Those calm desires that ask'd but little room,

Those healthful sports that grac'd the peaceful scene,

Liv'd in each look and brighten'd all the green —

These, far departing, seek a kinder shore,

And rural mirth and manners are no more.

Sweet Auburn! parent of the blissful hour,

Thy glades forlorn confess the tyrant's power.

Here, as I take my solitary rounds

Amid thy tangling walks and ruin'd grounds,

And, many a year elaps'd, return to view

Where once the cottage stood, the hawthorn grew —

Remembrance wakes with all her busy t