"The rich man's joys increase, the poor's decay,"

Sam Allen Discussion 1H

This quotation comes from Oliver Goldsmith's "The Deserted Village." He wrote the poem in 1770. Here is the full quotation (lines 265-268).

Ye friends to truth, ye statesmen who survey
The rich man's joys increase, the poor's decay,
'Tis yours to judge how wide the limits stand
Between a splendid and a happy land.

These lines, and line 266 in particular, encapsulate important ideas of Goldsmith's poem; the growing void between the extravagant nobility and impoverished villagers, the loss of English identity and the end of blissful village life.

Here are a few more important lines from the poem;

"This wealth is but a name."

"And desolation saddens all thy green: one only master grasps the whole domain."

"I see the rural Virtues leave the land."

"states of native strength possessed, though very poor, may still be very blessed."

I think these lines provide the crux of Goldsmith's poem. Many of Goldsmith's concerns relate to broad contexts Makdisi has covered in many of the assigned works: the value of ordinary over extraordinary, the reconciliation of English identity to increasing diversity, the migration to cities, and the value of Nature as a remedy to social calamity.

It strikes me as an important poem (for this course) and an especially important line.