THE VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER OLIVER GOLDSMITH CRITICAL APPRECIATION The Village Schoolmaster is an extract from Goldsmiths famous long

g poem The Deserted Village (1770) in which he describes the decline of a village in Ireland in the nineteenth century. The extract describing the schoolmaster is said to have been inspired by one Thomas Byrne, an ex-soldier who taught Goldsmith when he was a boy. The poem has a rural background. It depicts scenes, people, manners and objects of a village in 18th century Britain. It is a pastoral lyric which abounds in pictures of village life and contains nostalgic reflections from Goldsmiths boyhood days. The speaker fondly remembers his childhood schooldays at a village school. The poem is remembered for the formal simplicity of its language and poetic style, and for the sincerity of the emotions and sentiments that it expresses. The tone is sympathetic yet gently humorous. This poem is a simple word-picture of the tale of a village school master. It was a small village school at Lissoy, the Irish village where the poet himself had studied. Mr. Thomas Paddy Byrne was the village school master. This poem has become one of the immortals of literature because of the ring of authenticity, for he was a pupil of this school master. With a passing reference to the location, the poet gets to work to describe the man. The school master's moods, the situation in the classroom and the reactions of the learners have been described in this poem. It is sufficiently clear that Goldsmith looked upon the teacher with the mixed feelings of fear, respect and humour. TEACHERS CHARACTER His appearance was stern He was a strict disciplinarian the pupils were terrified of him He was jovial by nature joked with his pupils He was kind He loved learning and was intense about it He was extremely knowledgeable the villagers were amazed at all that he knew He had very good debating skills he could argue at length using long, difficult words The poet gives a humorous study of the teacher's character but never loses his sympathy for him. He makes an analysis of the character and capabilities of the schoolmaster. He was a staunch disciplinarian who took his students to task if they played truant. The poet, as a student, was very aware of this aspect of the school master but he appreciated his stand and came to love and respect him. The severe measures taken by the teacher had a soft and pious motive behind them as he wanted to see his pupils 'turn into learned people. The school master's character is portrayed with many paradoxes. He is an able and strict man yet his school is always noisy. He is severe in manner but at the same time is jovial with a stock of seasoned jokes. He is supposed to be a great scholar though he can only read, write and solve simple sums of arithmetic. He is stern and yet kind. The school master is acknowledged as a great erudite person by the entire village and even the parson recognizes his skill in debate. The rhetoric of the teacher leaves the rustics gazing in admiration. The poem ends on a note of humour. The teacher is not to be taken as a mere satirical sketch. Apart from his scholarly pretensions, he has been a remarkably kind and benevolent gentleman. The frown on his face often hides a heart overflowing with love and sympathy. He has a smattering of useful information which he puts to good use with the illiterate and ignorant villagers. Thus he projects a larger than life image of himself before them. He has an opinion on every issue and loves to engage in debates particularly with the village priest He knows that in the eyes of the villagers the outcome of the debate depends more on sound than on sense. Hence he continues arguing even after he has lost his point.

Goldsmiths pen-picture is a masterpiece of portrayal. He manages to poke fun at the school master while retaining respect and awe for him. The school master is neither idealized nor trivialized. In fact, he is humanized. And therein lies the strength of this poem. ANNOTATIONS 1. yon yonder, over there 2. straggling fence moving haphazardly 3. skirts borders 4. the way the road to the school 5. blossomed furze a thorny evergreen shrub with yellow flowers 6. unprofitably gay uselessly bright, as this beauty serves no purpose since no one is there to see it 7. noisy mansion large stately building. Here the word is used ironically to describe the small village school, resounding with the noise made by the pupils. 8. skilled to rule able and experienced in running efficiently 9. severe strict 10. stern to view harsh in appearance 11. truant a student who stays away from school without permission 12. boding tremblers students who trembled with fear, anticipating punishment 13. learned to trace had acquired the skill of interpreting the signs 14. the days disasters misfortunes that were likely to occur that day 15. his morning face the expression on the schoolmasters face first thing in the morning 16. full well heartily, enthusiastically 17. counterfeited glee pretended/ forced/ artificial enjoyment 18. full well eagerly 19. busy whisper the news was promptly passed on among the pupils 20. circling round being communicated to one another 21. conveyed passed on 22. dismal tidings bad news 23. frowned looked angry 24. in aught in anything 25. in fault was responsible 26. if severein fault if he was strict, it was because of the love he had for learning 27. the village all all the villagers 28. cipher calculate, work out problems in arithmetic 29. terms this refers to a legal term: it means the time of the year and date for payment of rents, wages, etc. 30. tides seasons and times of church festivals in the year, e.g., Whitsuntide, Eastertide, eventide, etc. 31. presage predict, foretell 32. gauge find the capacity or content of vessels by measurement and calculation. For example, he could measure the depth of a vessel and estimate how much it would hold. 33. arguing debating 34. parson priest. In an age when education was not widespread, the parson and the teacher were the only educated persons in a village. 35. owned admitted, acknowledged 36. vanquished defeated 37. words of learned length long and difficult words 38. thundering sound expressed loudly

39. 40. 41. 42.

amazed surprised gazing rustics staring villagers ranged around gathered around him wonder grew that one small head could carry all he knew their surprise increased at how the small head of the teacher could hold so much knowledge.