2012年1月9日 星期一

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Deserted Village

這首Oliver Goldsmith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia名詩值得詳注
譬如說
209: Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,
必須了解英國的民俗和曆法
term:
    1. A point in time at which something ends; termination: an apprenticeship nearing its term.
    2. The end of a normal gestation period: carried the fetus to term.
    3. A deadline, as for making a payment.
  • tide:
    A time or season. Often used in combination: eventide; Christmastide; Shrovetide.

    Game of the Goose - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    解釋與一些應詩選的玩法 不同

    The Complete Poetical Works - Google 圖書結果

    books.google.com/books?isbn=1406824054...Oliver Goldsmith - 2007 - Poetry - 280 頁
    “The twelve good rules”. 'A constant ... The rules, as 'found in the study of King Charles the First, of Blessed Memory,' are as follow:-- '1. ... Pick no quarrels; 6. ...





    Goldsmith, Oliver. The Deserted Village
    Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

    | Table of Contents for this work |
    | All on-line databases | Etext Center Homepage |






    -291-




    1: Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain,
    2: Where health and plenty cheer'd the labouring swain,
    3: Where smiling Spring its earliest visit paid,
    4: And parting Summer's lingering blooms delay'd;
    5: Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,
    6: Seats of my youth, when every sport could please:
    7: How often have I loiter'd o'er thy green,
    8: Where humble happiness endear'd each scene!
    9: How often have I paused on every charm,
    10: The shelter'd cot, the cultivated farm,
    11: The never-failing brook, the busy mill,
    12: The decent church that topp'd the neighbouring hill;
    13: The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,
    14: For talking age and whispering lovers made!
    15: How often have I bless'd the coming day,
    16: When toil, remitting, lent its turn to play,
    17: And all the village train, from labour free,
    18: Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree!
    19: While many a pastime circled in the shade,
    20: The young contending as the old survey'd;
    21: And many a gambol frolick'd o'er the ground,
    22: And sleights of art and feats of strength went round;
    23: And still, as each repeated pleasure tired,
    24: Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspired-
    25: The dancing pair that simply sought renown,



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    26: By holding out to tire each other down;
    27: The swain mistrustless of his smutted face,
    28: While secret laughter titter'd round the place;
    29: The bashful virgin's side-long looks of love;
    30: The matron's glance, that would those looks reprove.
    31: These were thy charms, sweet village! sports like these,
    32: With sweet succession, taught e'en toil to please;
    33: These round thy bowers their cheerful influence shed;
    34: These were thy charms-but all these charms are fled.


    35: Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn,
    36: Thy sports are fled, and all thy charms withdrawn;
    37: Amidst thy bowers the tyrant's hand is seen,
    38: And Desolation saddens all thy green:
    39: One only master grasps the whole domain,
    40: And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain.
    41: No more thy glassy brook reflects the day,
    42: But, choked with sedges, works its weedy way;
    43: Along thy glades, a solitary guest,
    44: The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest;
    45: Amidst thy desert walks the lapwing flies,
    46: And tires their echoes with unvaried cries:
    47: Sunk are thy bowers in shapeless ruin all,
    48: And the long grass o'ertops the mouldering wall
    49: And, trembling, shrinking from the spoiler's hand,
    50: Far, far away thy children leave the land.


    51: Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
    52: Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.
    53: Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
    54: A breath can make them, as a breath has made:
    55: But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
    56: When once destroy'd, can never be supplied.


    57: A time there was, ere England's griefs began,
    58: When every rood of ground maintain'd its man;
    59: For him light Labour spread her wholesome store,
    60: just gave what life required, but gave no more:
    61: His best companions, Innocence and Health;



    -293-



    62: And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.


    63: But times are alter'd; Trade's unfeeling train
    64: Usurp the land, and dispossess the swain;
    65: Along the lawn, where scatter'd hamlets rose,
    66: Unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose;
    67: And every want to luxury allied,
    68: And every pang that folly pays to pride.
    69: Those gentle hours that plenty bade to bloom,
    70: Those calm desires that ask'd but little room,
    71: Those healthful sports that graced the peaceful scene,
    72: Lived in each look, and brighten'd all the green-
    73: These, far departing, seek a kinder shore,
    74: And rural mirth and manners are no more.


    75: Sweet Auburn! parent of the blissful hour,
    76: Thy glades forlorn confess the tyrant's power,
    77: Here, as I take my solitary rounds,
    78: Amidst thy tangling walks and ruin'd grounds,
    79: And, many a year elapsed, return to view
    80: Where once the cottage stood, the hawthorn grew-
    81: Remembrance wakes with all her busy train,
    82: Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain.


    83: In all my wanderings through this world of care,
    84: In all my griefs-and God has given my share-
    85: I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown,
    86: Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down;
    87: To husband out life's taper at the close,
    88: And keep the flame from wasting, by repose:
    89: I still had hopes, for pride attends us still,
    90: Amidst the swains to show my book-learn'd skill,
    91: Around my fire an evening group to draw,
    92: And tell of all I felt, and all I saw;
    93: And, as a hare, whom hounds and horns pursue,
    94: Pants to the place f rom whence at first she flew,
    95: I still had hopes, my long vexations past,
    96: Here to return-and die at home at last.


    97: 0 blest retirement, friend to life's decline,



    -294-



    98: Retreats from care, that never must be mine,
    99: How blest is he who crowns, in shades like these,
    100: A youth of labour with an age of ease;
    101: Who quits a world where strong temptations try,
    102: And, since 'tis hard to combat, learns to fly!
    103: For him no wretches, born to work and weep,
    104: Explore the mine, or tempt the dangerous deep;
    105: No surly porter stands, in guilty state,
    106: To spurn imploring famine from the gate;
    107: But on he moves to meet his latter end,
    108: Angels around befriending virtue's friend;
    109: Sinks to the grave with unperceived decay,
    110: While resignation gently slopes the way;
    111: And, all his prospects brightening to the last,
    112: His heaven commences ere the world be past!


    113: Sweet was the sound, when oft, at evening's close,
    114: Up yonder hill the village murmur rose.
    115: There, as I pass'd with careless steps and slow,
    116: The mingled notes came soften'd from below;
    117: The swain responsive as the milk-maid sung,
    118: The sober herd that low'd to meet their young,
    119: The noisy geese that gobbled o'er the pool,
    120: The playful children just let loose from school;
    121: The watch dog's voice that bay'd the whispering wind,
    122: And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind;-
    123: These all in sweet confusion sought the shade,
    124: And fill'd each pause the nightingale had made.
    125: But now the sounds of population fail,
    126: No cheerful murmurs fluctuate in the gale,
    127: No busy steps the grass-grown footway tread
    128: But all the bloomy flush of life is fled-
    129: All but yon widow'd, solitary thing,
    130: That feebly bends beside the plashy spring;
    131: She, wretched matron,-forced, in age, for bread,
    132: To strip the brook with mantling cresses spread,
    133: To pick her wintry faggot from the thorn,



    -295-



    134: To seek her nightly shed, and weep till morn,-
    135: She only left of all the harmless train,
    136: The sad historian of the pensive plain.


    137: Near yonder copse, where once the garden smiled,
    138: And still where many a garden-flower grows wild,
    139: There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose,
    140: The village preacher's modest mansion rose.
    141: A man he was to all the country dear,
    142: And passing rich with forty pounds a year.
    143: Remote from towns he ran his godly race,
    144: Nor e'er had changed, nor wish'd to change, his place;
    145: Unskilful he to fawn, or seek for power
    146: By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour;
    147: Far other aims his heart had learn'd to Prize,
    148: More bent to raise the wretched than to rise.
    149: His house was known to all the vagrant train;
    150: He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain;
    151: The long-remember'd beggar was his guest,
    152: Whose beard descending swept his aged breast;
    153: The ruin'd spendthrift, now no longer proud,
    154: Claim'd kindred there, and had his claims allow'd;
    155: The broken soldier, kindly bid to stay,
    156: Sat by his fire, and talk'd the night away;-
    157: Wept o'er his wounds, or, tales of sorrow done,
    158: Shoulder'd his crutch, and show'd how fields were won.
    159: Pleased with his guests, the good man learn'd to glow,
    160: And quite forgot their vices in their woe;
    161: Careless their merits or their faults to scan,
    162: His pity gave ere charity began,


    163: Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride,
    164: And even his failings lean'd to virtue's side;
    165: But in his duty prompt at every call,
    166: He watch'd and wept, he pray'd and felt for all:
    167: And, as a bird each fond endearment tries,
    168: To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies,
    169: He tried each art, reproved each dull delay,



    -296-



    170: Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way.


    171: Beside the bed where parting life was laid,
    172: And sorrow, guilt, and pain, by turns dismay'd,
    173: The reverend champion stood. At his control,
    174: Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul;
    175: Comfort came down the trembling wretch to raise,
    176: And his last faltering accents whisper'd praise.


    177: At church, with meek and unaffected grace,
    178: His looks adorn'd the venerable place;
    179: Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway,
    180: And fools, who came to scoff, remain'd to pray.
    181: The service past, around the pious man
    182: With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran;
    183: E'en children follow'd, with endearing wile,
    184: And pluck'd his gown, to share the good man's smile;
    185: His ready smile a parent's warmth express'd;
    186: Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distress'd;
    187: To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given
    188: But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven.
    189: As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,
    190: Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,
    191: Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
    192: Eternal sunshine settles on its head.


    193: Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way,
    194: With blossom'd furze unprofitably gay,
    195: There, in his noisy mansion, skill'd to rule,
    196: The village master taught his little school.
    197: A man severe he was, and stern to view;
    198: I knew him well, and every truant knew:
    199: Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace
    200: The day's disasters in his morning face;
    201: Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee
    202: At all his jokes, for many a joke had he;
    203: Full well the busy whisper, circling round,
    204: Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd.
    205: Yet he was kind, or if severe in aught,



    -297-



    206: The love he bore to learning was in fault.
    207: The village all declared how much he knew;
    208: 'Twas certain he could write, and cipher too;
    209: Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,
    210: And even the story ran that he could gauge.
    211: In arguing, too, the parson own'd his skill,
    212: For even though vanquish'd, he could argue still;
    213: While words of learned length and thundering sound
    214: Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around;
    215: And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew,
    216: That one small head could carry all he knew.
    217: But past is all his fame;-the very spot
    218: Where many a time he triumph'd, is forgot.


    219: Near yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high,
    220: Where once the sign-post caught the passing eye,
    221: Now lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired,
    222: Where grey-beard mirth and smiling toil retired,
    223: Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound,
    224: And news much older than their ale went round.
    225: Imagination fondly stoops to trace
    226: The parlour splendours of that festive place;
    227: The whitewash'd wall, the nicely sanded floor,
    228: The varnish'd clock that click'd behind the door,
    229: The chest, contrived a double debt to pay,
    230: A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day,
    231: The pictures placed for ornament and use,
    232: The twelve good rules, the royal game of goose,
    233: The hearth, except when winter chill'd the day,
    234: With aspen boughs, and flowers, and fennel gay;-
    235: While broken tea-cups, wisely kept for show,
    236: Ranged o'er the chimney, glisten'd in a row.


    237: Vain transitory splendours! Could not all
    238: Reprieve the tottering mansion from its fall?
    239: Obscure it sinks, nor shall it more impart
    240: An hour's importance to the poor man's heart.
    241: Thither no more the peasant shall repair,



    -298-



    242: To sweet oblivion of his daily care;
    243: No more the farmer's news, the barber's tale,
    244: No more the woodman's ballad shall prevail;
    245: No more the smith his dusky brow shall clear,
    246: Relax his ponderous strength, and lean to hear;
    247: The host himself no longer shall be found
    248: Careful to see the mantling bliss go round;
    249: Nor the coy maid, half willing to be prest,
    250: Shall kiss the cup to pass it to the rest.


    251: Yes! let the rich deride, the proud disdain,
    252: These simple blessings of the lowly train;
    253: To me more dear, congenial to my heart,
    254: One native charm, than all the gloss of art.
    255: Spontaneous joys, where nature has its play,
    256: The soul adopts, and owns their first-born sway;
    257: Lightly they frolic o'er the vacant mind,
    258: Unenvied, unmolested, unconfined:
    259: But the long pomp, the midnight masquerade,
    260: With all the freaks of wanton wealth array'd,
    261: In these, ere triflers half their wish obtain,
    262: The toiling pleasure sickens into pain;
    263: And, even while Fashion's brightest arts decoy,
    264: The heart distrusting asks, if this be joy?


    265: Ye friends to truth, ye statesmen, who survey
    266: The rich man's joys increase, the poor's decay,
    267: 'Tis yours to judge how wide the limits stand
    268: Between a splendid and a happy land.
    269: Proud swells the tide with loads of freighted ore,
    270: And shouting Folly hails them from her shore;
    271: Hoards, even beyond the miser's wish, abound,
    272: And rich men flock from all the world around.
    273: Yet count our gains. This wealth is but a name
    274: That leaves our useful products still the same.
    275: Not so the loss. The man of wealth and pride
    276: Takes up a space that many poor supplied;
    277: Space for his lake, his park's extended bounds,



    -299-



    278: Space for his horses, equipage, and hounds;
    279: The robe that wraps his limbs in silken sloth
    280: Has robb'd the neighbouring fields of half their growth;
    281: His seat, where solitary sports are seen,
    282: Indignant spurns the cottage from the green;
    283: Around the world each needful product flies,
    284: For all the luxuries the world supplies;
    285: While thus the land, adorn'd for pleasure all,
    286: In barren splendour feebly waits the fall.


    287: As some fair female, unadorn'd and plain,
    288: Secure to please while youth confirms her reign,
    289: Slights every borrow'd charm that dress supplies,
    290: Nor shares with art the triumph of her eyes;
    291: But when those charms are past, for charms are frail,
    292: When time advances, and when lovers fail,
    293: She then shines forth, solicitous to bless,
    294: In all the glaring impotence of dress;
    295: Thus fares the land by luxury betray'd;
    296: In nature's simplest charms at first array'd;-
    297: But verging to decline, its splendours rise,
    298: Its vistas strike, its palaces surprise;
    299: While, scourged by famine, from the smiling land
    300: The mournful peasant leads his humble band;
    301: And while he sinks, without one arm to save,
    302: The country blooms-a garden and a grave!


    303: Where, then, ah! where shall poverty reside,
    304: To 'scape the pressure of contiguous pride?
    305: If to some common's fenceless limits stray'd,
    306: He drives his flock to pick the scanty blade,
    307: Those fenceless fields the sons of wealth divide,
    308: And even the bare-worn common is denied.


    309: If to the city sped-what waits him there?
    310: To see profusion that he must not share;
    311: To see ten thousand baneful arts combined
    312: To pamper luxury and thin mankind;
    313: To see each joy the sons of pleasure know



    -300-



    314: Extorted from his fellow-creature's woe:
    315: Here while the courtier glitters in brocade,
    316: There the pale artist plies the sickly trade;
    317: Here while the proud their long-drawn pomp display,
    318: There the black gibbet glooms beside the way:
    319: The dome where Pleasure holds her midnight reign,
    320: Here, richly deck'd, admits the gorgeous train;
    321: Tumultuous grandeur crowds the blazing square,
    322: The rattling chariots clash, the torches glare.
    323: Sure scenes like these no troubles e'er annoy!
    324: Sure these denote one universal joy!-
    325: Are these thy serious thoughts?-Ah, turn thine eyes
    326: Where the poor houseless shivering female lies:
    327: She once, perhaps, in village plenty bless'd,
    328: Has wept at tales of innocence distress'd;
    329: Her modest looks the cottage might adorn,
    330: Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn:
    331: Now lost to all, her friends, her virtue, fled,
    332: Near her betrayer's door she lays her head,
    333: And, pinch'd with cold, and, shrinking from the shower,
    334: With heavy heart deplores that luckless hour,
    335: When idly first, ambitious of the town,
    336: She left her wheel, and robes of country brown.


    337: Do thine, sweet Auburn, thine, the loveliest train,
    338: Do thy fair tribes participate her pain?
    339: E'en now, perhaps, by cold and hunger led,
    340: At proud men's doors they ask a little bread!


    341: Ah, no. To distant climes, a dreary scene,
    342: Where half the convex world intrudes between,
    343: Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go,
    344: Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe.
    345: Far different there from all that charm'd before,
    346: The various terrors of that horrid shore;
    347: Those blazing suns that dart a downward ray,
    348: And fiercely shed intolerable day;
    349: Those matted woods where birds forget to sing,



    -301-



    350: But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling;
    351: Those poisonous fields, with rank luxuriance crown'd,
    352: Where the dark scorpion gathers death around;
    353: Where at each step the stranger fears to wake
    354: The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake;
    355: Where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey,
    356: And savage men more murderous still than they:
    357: While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies,
    358: Mingling the ravaged landscape with the skies.
    359: Far different these from every former scene,
    360: The cooling brook, the grassy-vested green,
    361: The breezy covert of the warbling grove,
    362: That only shelter'd thefts of harmless love.


    363: Good Heaven! what sorrows gloom'd that parting day,
    364: That call'd them from their native walks away;
    365: When the poor exiles, every pleasure past,
    366: Hung round their bowers, and fondly looked their last,
    367: And took a long farewell, and wish'd in vain,
    368: For seats like these beyond the western main;
    369: And shuddering still to face the distant deep,
    370: Return'd and wept, and still return'd to weep!
    371: The good old sire the first prepared to go
    372: To new-found worlds, and wept for others' woe;
    373: But for himself, in conscious virtue brave,
    374: He only wish'd for worlds beyond the grave.
    375: His lovely daughter, lovelier in her tears,
    376: The fond companion of his helpless years,
    377: Silent went next, neglectful of her charms,
    378: And left a lover's for a father's arms.
    379: With louder plaints the mother spoke her woes,
    380: And bless'd the cot where every pleasure rose,
    381: And kiss'd her thoughtless babes with many a tear,
    382: And clasp'd them close, in sorrow doubly dear;
    383: Whilst her fond husband strove to lend relief
    384: In all the silent manliness of grief.


    385: 0 Luxury, thou cursed by Heaven's decree,



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    386: How ill exchanged are things like these for thee!
    387: How do thy potions, with insidious joy,
    388: Diffuse their pleasures only to destroy!
    389: Kingdoms by thee to sickly greatness grown,
    390: Boast of a florid vigour not their own;
    391: At every draught more large and large they grow,
    392: A bloated mass of rank unwieldy woe;
    393: Till sapp'd their strength, and every part unsound,
    394: Down, down they sink, and spread a ruin round.


    395: E'en now the devastation is begun,
    396: And half the business of destruction done;
    397: E'en now, methinks, as pondering here I stand,
    398: I see the rural Virtues leave the land.
    399: Down where yon anchoring vessel spreads the sail
    400: That idly waiting flaps with every gale,
    401: Downward they move, a melancholy band,
    402: Pass from the shore, and darken all the strand;
    403: Contented Toil, and hospitable Care,
    404: And kind connubial tenderness are there;
    405: And Piety with wishes placed above,
    406: And steady Loyalty, and faithful Love.


    407: And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid
    408: Still first to fly where sensual joys invade!
    409: Unfit, in these degenerate times of shame,
    410: To catch the heart, or strike for honest fame;
    411: Dear charming nymph, neglected and decried,
    412: My shame in crowds, my solitary pride;
    413: Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe,
    414: That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so;
    415: Thou guide by which the nobler arts excel,
    416: Thou nurse of every virtue, fare thee well!
    417: Farewell! and oh! where'er thy voice be tried,
    418: On Torno's cliffs, or Pambamarca's side,
    419: Whether where equinoctial fervours glow,
    420: Or winter wraps the polar world in snow,
    421: Still let thy voice, prevailing over time,



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    422: Redress the rigours of th' inclement clime;
    423: Aid slighted Truth with thy persuasive strain;
    424: Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain;
    425: Teach him that states of native strength possest,
    426: Though very poor, may still be very blest;
    427: That Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay,
    428: As ocean sweeps the labour'd mole away;
    429: While self-dependent power can time defy
    430: As rocks resist the billows and the sky.

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