A Villager’s Response: A Reply In Verse To Oliver Gioldsmith’s “The Rising Village”
An Introduction To The Work:
The Poem, A Villager’s Response, is a reply to the Oliver Goldsmith work The Rising Village, published in 1825 as a reply to his great uncle’s poem The Deserted Village.
A Villager’s Response takes the position that Oliver Goldsmith’s work is more in-line with British Ideals than with the emerging Canadian identity, despite the fact that Oliver Goldsmith was born in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. A Villager’s Response see Goldsmith’s The Rising Village as an attempt to justify the Canadian way of life and A Villager’s Response takes the position that no justification is needed and that the Canadian identity ought to be celebrated for its own unique culture
The Goldsmith poem was written in heroic couplets, the Kelley work mirrors this pattern except for the first few lines, to both display an understanding of Goldsmith’s conventions while asserting a strong, independent Canadian identity.
A Villager’s Response
Prosporo’s profits were looses to Caliban,
Britain exploited the new northern land.
Finding defence through the verse of Goldsmith,
Poetic though not pure, duplicitous
Doublespeak of the poetic excuse
Boasts not of the accolades of frontiersmen,
But honours the British for having spawn them.
Dedications for uncle, father, and brother,
Makes an homage to the country elder.
Loyalty saluting a Union Jack,
Goldsmith remains British, that’s true fact;
Envy for the myths of The Deserted Village,
Hidden in the guise of toil and tillage,
Lies a profession of false pride,
But at the root, a satire lurks inside.
Despite hints of progress in description,
There is unresolved ironic tension,
Where the pleasant aspects seem ridiculous,
And benevolent ones seem dangerous.
Something good about the new society,
Where success is a possibility
For the otherwise unskilled man,
The pedlar, or even the doctor damned.
Goldsmith creates commonwealth verse with this,
But “Commonwealth Literature Does Not Exist”.
England or Canada, a choice to make,
Future lineage or past name-sake;
For literature can not have two masters,
Conflicts of that nature cause disasters.
The usurping tempest of British reign
Brought forth with it nothing but British pain:
“Where wandering savages, and beasts of prey,
Displayed, by turns, the fury of their sway.
What noble courage must their hearts have fired,
How great the ardour which their souls inspired,
Who leaving far behind their native pain,
Have sought a home beyond the Western main.
Endowed with Locke Goldsmith takes the new land,
All part of the great colonizing plan;
Disperse the first peoples and take their home,
Create a brand new place for Brits to roam.
After the British decide they are here to stay
Their children begin to lose their old way.
Goldsmith asks for their gentle pardon please,
They descend from British sensibilities.
Through sensible intrusions much was lost,
True immigrants and natives were then tossed;
And little London quickly appeared,
While the Canadian wild disappeared:
“Then came the churches, then came the schools
Then came the lawyers then came the rules”
In this way does colonial life intrude,
Forcing it’s order and forcing it’s rule.
“Beneath the shelter of a log-built shed
The country school house next erects it’s head.”
Goldsmith encourages the London way,
Not allowing Canada to rise that day.
Employed as an academic at the school
Is none better than a simplistic fool:
“No master here, in every art refined,
Through fields of science guides the aspiring mind;
But some poor wanderer of the human race,
Unequal to the task, supplies his pace,
Whose greatest source of knowledge or of skill
Consists in reading, and in writing ill;
Whose efforts can no higher merit claim,
Than spreading Dilworth’s great scholastic fame.”
The students there will be made unaware
By a lost school-master who does not care.
As children are taught and educated
By a layman whose texts are out-dated,
Condemning the country to mental loss,
As future aspirations are tossed.
Goldsmith lacks any hope of becoming equal,
Apologizing for north’s lack of appeal.
Goldsmith creates a portrait of half-wits,
Less than London life due to mental fits.
He creates a British refuse for the damned,
Where travelling con-artists succeed with scams.
This literature is not Canadian,
Written by one who condemns the Acadian,
Offering no respect for his intellect,
Considering the rural man inept:
“Yet, let no one condemn with thoughtless haste,
The hardy shelter of their dreary waste,
Who far removed from every busy throng,
And social pleasures to life belong,
Whene’er a stranger comes within his reach,
Will sigh to learn whatever he can teach.
To this must be ascribed in great degree,
That careless, idle curiosity,
Which all over the western world prevails,
And every breast, to more or less, assails
Till, by indulgence, so o’erpowering grown,
It seeks to know all business but its own.”
A landscape seen as but a dreary waste,
Inhabited by people seen as base,
Who may not be of worldly re-known,
But they still deserve a proper pronoun.
Attention to Brits is not for their minds,
But just warmth of the Canadian kind.
A cynical tone beneath Goldsmith’s tongue
Hides away from the northern sun,
Confusing himself through oxymoron,
Not expecting the reader to catch on:
“While now the Rising Village claims a name
Its limits still increase and still its fame”
The impression, the north sky is the limit,
It is not quite the way that Goldsmith meant it:
“The wandering pedlar, who undaunted traced
His lonely footsteps o’er the silent waste;
Who traversed once the cold and snow-clad plain,
Reckless of danger, trouble, or pain,
To find a market for his little wares,
The source of all hope, and all his cares,
Established here, his settled home maintains,
And soon a merchant’s higher title gains.
Around his store, on spacious shelves arrayed,
Behold his great and various stock trade.
Here nails and blankets, side by side, are seen,
There, horse’s collars, and large tureen:
Buttons and tumblers, fish hooks, spoons and knives,
Shawls for young damsels, flannel for old wives:
Woolcards and stockings, hats for men and boys,
Mill saws and fenders, silk, and children’s toys:
All useful things, and joined with many more,
Compose the well-assorted country store.”
Goldsmith’s vision is quite silly and change,
Making the frontier people seem deranged.
Selling nails and stockings side by side,
A most uncivilized vision does arise,
Of backward descendants of British stock,
With rights to land granted by Locke.
In Britain, the merchant would be a waste,
But he thrives like a king in this cold place.
Not smart enough to succeed in England,
Though intellect enough to master the north land.
A second society of Canadians
With portraits of slow-witted Acadians.
Like the scourge of the medical profession,
Who could never pass an examination:
“the half-bred doctor next then settles down,
And hopes the village will soon prove a town.
No rival here disputes his doubtful skill,
He cures, by chance, or ends each human ill:
By turns he physics, or his patient bleeds,
Uncertain in what case each best succeeds.”
The best professional the north can produce
Only succeeds by luck of the deuce.
The image Goldsmith creates is not great,
It is a country of the second rate.
This is not a proper London-North marriage,
It pre-condemns Canadian heritage.
Of the Great White North Goldsmith is not proud,
Since his prejudice keeps the great north down.
Unaware of the Orient’s master
Whose wise teachings ring true both now and after
To a student, he administers tests
That to pass will take his very mental best
The test is the riddle about the cup,
Only one that is empty can be filled up.
With him Goldsmith brought a cup, but not empty;
So full it was, it prevented what could be;
Envisioned not what could be created,
Bringing models that were overrated.
With a mind too full to see the great promise,
Goldsmith failed to grasp the great premise,
Of a brand new land, glorious and free,
Waiting to ascribe its identity.
Language belongs to no one man,
It belongs equally to all the lands.
And although the conventions can be gifts,
The point that was there waiting was so missed;
Covered over by red-faced excuses
Attempting to justify silly excuses:
“The conservative thoughts of a censoring patriarch
Would rush to shut his illegitimate children in a box”.
Supported through those thoughts of Rushdie’s,
Explores what all convention should be.
Conventions could have been incorporated,
And Canadian life thus supported.
There was no true need for apology,
Goldsmith would find no great fan in Rushdie.
Goldsmith takes pride in what is removed,
Pesky trouble disrupting British grooves:
“Not fifty summers yet have blessed thy clime,
How short a period in the page of time!
Since savage tribes, with terror in their train,
Rushed o’er thy fields and ravaged all thy plain.
But some few years have rolled in haste away
Since, through thy vales, the fearless beasts of prey,
With dismal yell and loud appalling cry,
Proclaimed his midnight reign of terror nigh.”
Praising British heroes as exterminators,
Though native cultures saw terminators,
Goldsmith lets his colours show,
White and Red? The answer is simply no:
Nor culture’s arts, a nation’s noblest friend
Alone o’er Scotia’s fields their power extended;
From all her shores, with every gentle gale,
Commerce expands her free and swelling sail;
And all the land, luxuriant, rich, and gay,
Exculting owns the splendour of their sway.
These are thy blessings, Scotia, and for these,
For wealth, for freedom, happiness, and ease,
Thy grateful thanks to Britain’s care are due,
Her power protects, her smiles past hopes renew,
Her valour guards thee, and her council guides,
Then may thy parent ever be thy pride!”
“For wealth, for freedom, happiness, and ease,”
Many left Britain in a quest for these!
So to her crown the credit should not go,
But to the frontiersmen who made it all so.
In the parent Goldsmith finds his great pride,
But most find their pride in their child’s eye.
Canada is partly “child of Britain”,
Should that not be how the poem is written?
Not through the dismissing of religions,
Nor success of conquering missions.
Praising Great Britain with a most pompous air,
As if no reader would ever likely care,
Goldsmith gives England a greater status,
Diminishes Canadian masses,
To a level below the status quo,
Embedding a patriot sense of woe:
“To sinking nations life and freedom gave,
’Twas thine to conquer as ’twas thine to save”
Your freedom came at the expense of another,
And so you bear a great shame like no other.
Praise to Britain does not Canada raise,
Stay here and love it, or get out of the way.
Heroes that defeated our “noble savage”,
Only did so pursuing land to ravage.
“The Rising Village” a satire name;
The North and Britain can not be the same;
Because Goldsmith holds old Britain most high,
Goldsmith, if thought Canadian, is a crime,
Because he does not stand for Canada,
Instead, he stands just for his sweet Britania.
Notes:
Line #1
Prosporo: The usurping character in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Line #1
Caliban: The usurped in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Line #2
Northern land: Northern and North are used to identify Canada in the poem.
Line #4
Goldsmith: Oliver Goldsmith, Author of The Rising Village.
Line #9
Country Elder: Britain
Line # 10
Saluting… Jack: Refers to Goldsmith’s career as a civilian attached to the British Army (source: Anthology Of Canadian Literature In English: Revised And Abridged Ed. Pp. 36)
Line #12
The Deserted Village: Goldsmith’s great uncle’s poem to which The Rising Village was a reply.
Line #19
Where the pleasant… dangerous: Introduction to The Rising Village, Anthology Of Canadian Literature In English: Revised And Abridged Ed. (Pp.36).
Line #23
Something good… doctor damned: Refers to the success of unskilled professionals in Canada, a success they could not achieve in London as they were seen as a second class of professionals.
Line #25 “Commonwealth Literature Does Not Exist”: The title of a commonwealth literature essay written by Salaman Rushdie.
Line # 37 Where native savages… Western main: Goldsmith, line 45–50.
Line #38 Locke: John Locke credited ownership of property to those who laboured on the lands and necessarily those who lived there.
Line #51 Then… rules: From Knopfler’s “Telegraph Road”, Recorded on Dire Straits: Love Over Gold, 1982.
Line #55
Beneath… it’s head: Goldsmith, line 229–230.
Line #67"
No master here… scholastic fame: Goldsmith, line 233–240.
Line #96:
Yet, let no one… all business but it’s own: Goldsmith, line 141–152.
Line #99:
Proper pronoun”: Refers to Goldsmith line 152 where “it” is used in place of “he”, “she”, or “they”.
Line # 107:
While now… it’s fame: Goldsmith, line 197–198.
Line #127
The wandering pedlar… well-assorted country store: Goldsmith, line 199–216.
Line #133
Locke: John Locke.
Line #135
Waste… cold place: Responds to Goldsmith’s portrait of Canada in lines 200–201.
Line #147
The half-bred doctor… each best succeeds: Goldsmith, line 217–222.
Line #54
Great White North: Slang for Canada.
Line # 56
Orient’s master: Refers to an ancient oriental folk-tale where after learning all he could from lesser masters a young man seeks out the tutelage of the greatest master. The master asks the student if has any training, and after discovering he has the master says he cannot teach him. The student asks why and the master replies “bring me an empty cup and I will fill it, but your cup is already too full”. Goldsmith brought with him a cup full of European ideology, and unlike conventions that can be empty, Goldsmith’s cup is already too full of Europe to write of Canada.
Line #177
The conservative… in a box: From Verse On Rushdie, line 32–33, which explores Salman Rushdie’s Commonwealth Literature Does Not Exist.
Line #193
Not fifty… terror nigh: Goldsmith, line 499–506.
Line #197
White and Red: The colours of the Canadian flag.
Line 209
Nor culture… be thy pride!: Goldsmith, line 517–528.
Line 219
For wealth… ease: Goldsmith, line 524.
Line 228
Not through… missions: Rebuttal to Goldsmith’s lines 532 “And long in superstition’s bands delayed”, and 538: “The noblest conquerors of the field and wave”.
Line #236
To sinking… to save: Goldsmith, line 545–546.
Work Cited
Goldsmith, Oliver. “The Rising Village”. Anthology Of Canadian Literature In English: Revised And Abridged. Ed. Russel Brown, Donna Bennett, & Nathan Cooke. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 1990
Introduction To “The Rising Village”: Anthology Of Canadian Literature In English: Revised And Abridged. Ed. Russel Brown, Donna Bennett, & Nathan Cooke. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 1990
Kelley, Jeffrey. “Verse On Rushdie”. Academic Paper. The University Of New Brunswick, Saint John: 2001
Knopfler, Mark. “Telegraph Road: Dire Straights: Love Over Gold. Power Station Studio, Produced By Mark Knopfler. New York, NY: Phonogram Ltd. London: 1982
Rushdie, Salman. “Commonwealth Literatures Do Not Exist”. Concert Of Voices: An Anthology Of World Writing In English: Ed. Victor J. Ramraj. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press Ltd. 1995, 1997
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. The Norton Shakespeare: Based on The Oxford Edition. Ed. Steven Greenblatt. Norton & Company. New York & London. Oxford University Press: 1997
