Oliver Goldsmith, “The Deserted Village” (1770)
First Stanza from "The Deserted Village"
"Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain,Where health and plenty cheared the labouring swain,Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,And parting summer's lingering blooms delayed,Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,Seats of my youth, when every sport could please,How often have I loitered o'er thy green,Where humble happiness endeared each scene!How often have I paused on every charm,10The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm,The never-failing brook, the busy mill,The decent church that topt the neighbouring hill,The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,For talking age and whispering lovers made!How often have I blest the coming day,When toil remitting lent its turn to play,And all the village train, from labour free,Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree,While many a pastime circled in the shade,20The young contending as the old surveyed;And many a gambol frolicked o'er the ground,And slights of art and feats of strength went round;And still as each repeated pleasure tired,Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspired;The dancing pair that simply sought renownBy holding out to tire each other down;The swain mistrustless of his smutted face,While secret laughter tittered round the place;The bashful virgin's side-long looks of love,30The matron's glance that would those looks reprove!These were thy charms, sweet village; sports like these,With sweetsuccession, taught even toil to please;These round thy bowers their chearful influence shed,These were thy charms—But all these charms are fled."
Goldsmith writes about enclosure, luxury, and the expansion of the British Empire. He is concerned with the changing state of his world and that of other English people.
Goldsmith is a part of the ruling elite, an Irishman, writes of the ideal village in England being a place of work and leisure, not just the latter, and the growing British empire. He also discusses the changes that England faces and the British Empire as it begins to shift towards becoming a stronger base, yet it still remains better than what people are doing in America
Orientalism - The belief that western empires are superior, rational, and masculine as opposed to weak, irrational, and feminine eastern empires. This belief sets the stage for British colonization, a reason for 'saving' others from themselves.
Thomas De Quincey, From “Confessions of an English Opium Eater” (1881)
"Arrived at my lodgings, it may be supposed that I lost not a moment in taking the quantity prescribed. I was necessarily ignorant of the whole art and mystery of opium-taking, and what I took I took under every disadvantage. But I took it—and in an hour—oh, heavens! what a revulsion! what an upheaving, from its lowest depths, of inner spirit! what an apocalypse of the world within me! That my pains had vanished was now a trifle in my eyes; this negative effect was swallowed up in the immensity of those positive effects which had opened before me—in the abyss of divine enjoyment thus suddenly revealed. Here was a panacea, a φαρμακον6for all human woes; here was the secret of happiness"
A member of the opium epidemic, De Quincey became addicted taking opium in college, and presents in this work the nightmare and beauty of opium. He remarks on the idea of the Orient, and their use of opium, how it fascinates him the amount that they use and how he feels a shift towards becoming a part of the Orient. He struggles to define his Englishness within the context of the British Empire as a result,
Mary Wollstonecraft, From A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
"In a treatise, therefore, on female rights and manners, the works which have been particularly written for their improvement must not be overlooked; especially when it is asserted, in direct terms, that the minds of women are enfeebled by false refinement; that the books of instruction, written by men of genius, have had the same tendency as more frivolous productions; and that, in the true style of Mahometanism, they are only considered as females, and not as a part of the human species, when improvable reason is allowed to be the dignified distinction, which raises men above the brute creation, and puts a natural sceptre in a feeble hand."
A key advocate of Women’s rights. Builds on Thomas Pain and his work “Rights of Man,” but from the perspective of a woman. Presents the case for women in that they are rational creatures, opposite to what society determines they are and are deserving of rights that men have
Mentions the illegitimate stereotype that women are merely decorations, but does not go so far as to blame men, opening up the conversation of equality. Also speaks to how women are seen as oriental. Ultimately women are self regulating, protective, and rational people. Different from men in some aspects, but that does not mean deserving of shame.
William Blake, Excerpts from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell & Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794)
Excerpt from "Holy Thursday" (Experience)
"Is this a holy thing to see, In a rich and fruitful land,Babes reduced to misery, Fed with cold and usurous hand?Is that trembling cry a song? Can it be a song of joy?And so many children poor? It is a land of poverty!And their sun does never shine.And their fields are bleak &bare.And their ways are fill'd with thorns.It is eternal winter there.For where-e'er the sun does shine,And where-e'er the rain does fall:Babe can never hunger there,Nor poverty the mind appall."
A Poet and Artist, Blake carefully constructed each original script for these works and included a unique design that evoked varying meanings about the work. He examines his life through that of innocence and experience, the transformation from childhood to adulthood and the loss of seeing the world in a pure way. The struggle of being an adult and the enjoyment in being a child, noting the religious shift in viewing the world. The work begins with a combination of songs, images, sound, and writing. Blake appeals to the senses and to the constant change of existence
John Keats
“Ode on a Grecian Urn,” Active and popular from (1817-1820)
"O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede Of marble men and maidens overwrought, With forest branches and the trodden weed; Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
Different than other writers, Blake was a surgeon and from a poorer family with a lack of education. He experienced intense hardship during his times of writing and died at the age of 25 from tuberculosis. He remarks on history and the art within it, comparing the immortal nature to the quick death of life. For “Ode on a Grecian Urn” he looks to explain the images on the urn. While art is beautiful, there remains a sorrow in its permanence due to it being cold, pastoral, and full of loss in this example.
Enclosure - Conversion of common land into private property that is then enclosed by a hedge, wall or fence, and includes the removal of existing rights to graze animals or cultivate shared land. Also leads to the population moving into cities and working in factories as loss of farming jobs occur.
