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Oliver GoldsmithThe poem is an excerpt from a longer poem by Goldsmith called "The Deserted Village" and conveys the speaker's sentiments about a teacher. The word "village" in the title clearly suggests that the...
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Oliver GoldsmithIn "The Village Schoolmaster," an ironic admirer describes the schoolmaster's school as being beyond a "straggling" fence, or a fence that can't keep up--can't keep upright, that is. This means...
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Oliver GoldsmithThe Village School master was a man who could easily be identified as an "old stone face", or a man with a strong gaze and expression that inspired the respect and seriousness in students. A man...
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Oliver Goldsmith"The Village Schoolmaster" by Goldsmith is a lighthearted reflection of a village schoolmaster, but a more serious comment on a public policy. "Enclosure" was a policy that allowed the wealthy to...
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Oliver GoldsmithHere's the poem: Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the wayWith blossom'd furze unprofitably gay,There, in his noisy mansion, skill'd to rule,The village master taught his little school;A man...
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Oliver GoldsmithIrony exists when what is expected and what occurs are in conflict with each other. As a literary device and a figure of speech, it highlights inconsistencies and is intended to draw attention,...
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Oliver GoldsmithThe central idea of the poem is that the villagers respect the schoolmaster for his education. The poem describes a small village school. Most of the residents in the village do not have much...
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Oliver GoldsmithThe most remarkable thing about the village schoolmaster is the amount of knowledge he has. He is very smart. The author lets us know this by describing all the things he can do: The village all...
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Oliver GoldsmithI would say you can read this poem in two ways. You can read it as praise of the teacher, or you can read it as a poem about how life is fleeting and so is fame (sort of like "Ozymandias." In the...
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Oliver GoldsmithI do not think we necessarily have to interpret the line about the "village master" to mean that the school is like a village. Instead, we can understand this line as referring to the schoolmaster...
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Oliver GoldsmithIn the poem "The Village Schoolmaster" by Oliver Goldsmith, the poet is passing by his former schoolhouse and recalls the teacher who taught him when he was young. To be able to decide whether the...
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Oliver GoldsmithIn "The Village Schoolmaster," Oliver Goldsmith (c.1728-1774) presents a vivid picture of a certain schoolmaster. With each line, the reader peels away the layers of the schoolmaster's identity....
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Oliver GoldsmithOnomatopoeia is defined as words that are used to imitate sounds they describe. There are two usages of onomatopoeia. One is fairly easy to recognize. It is easily illustrated by Batman's "Biff!...
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Oliver GoldsmithThe schoolmaster is noted to be "severe." His reputation as a strict and serious teacher is supported in these lines: Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee,At all his jokes, for many a...
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Oliver GoldsmithThe schoolmaster in Oliver Goldsmith’s poem has numerous language skills. He tells jokes, he can write, and he is especially fond of arguing, according to the parson—even after he has lost the...
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Oliver GoldsmithThe speaker of this poem begins by describing the current appearance of a former schoolhouse. The fence is falling down, and the bushes are overgrown now, though the schoolhouse used to be like a...
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Oliver GoldsmithOliver Goldsmith’s poem "The Village Schoolmaster" is part of a longer work, "The Deserted Village." The poem describes and condemns the depopulation of the village, as its inhabitants move to the...
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Oliver GoldsmithAt first, it seems that the dog bit the man simply because he went mad. Nothing unusual there, we might think. Biting people is what mad dogs often do. Indeed, just about everyone in the poem...
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Oliver GoldsmithOliver Goldsmith’s poem “The Village Schoolmaster” has a nostalgic tone for a simpler time in which society was more stable. The benign authority and predictability of the schoolmaster himself...
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Oliver GoldsmithAn elegy is a generally serious poem written to honor an individual who has died. By calling the poem an elegy, Goldsmith raises our expectations and encourages us to believe that the poem will be...
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Oliver Goldsmith"If" is probably Rudyard Kipling's most famous poem (and one of my favorites), and it serves a didactic purpose of instructing a person on the various steps of becoming a good man. The first stanza...