Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmithwas an Irish novelist, playwright and poet, who is best known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield, his pastoral poem The Deserted Village, and his plays The Good-Natur'd Manand She Stoops to Conquer. He is thought to have written the classic children's tale The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth10 November 1730
CountryIreland
defiance eye human lords pass pride
Pride in their port, defiance in their eye I see the Lords of human kind pass by.
disappointment ambition eye
Man little knows what calamities are beyond his patience to bear till he tries them; as in ascending the heights of ambition, which look bright from below, every step we rise shows us some new and gloomy prospect of hidden disappointment; so in our descent from the summits of pleasure, though the vale of misery below may appear, at first, dark and gloomy, yet the busy mind, still attentive to its own amusement, finds, as we descend, something to flatter and to please. Still as we approach, the darkest objects appear to brighten, and the mortal eye becomes adapted to its gloomy situation.
lying eye nuts
Near yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high, Where once the sign-post caught the passing eye, Low lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired, Where graybeard mirth and smiling toil retired, Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound, And news much older than their ale went round.
eye home sight
The Europeans are themselves blind who describe fortune without sight. No first-rate beauty ever had finer eyes, or saw more clearly. They who have no other trade but seeking their fortune need never hope to find her; coquette-like, she flies from her close pursuers, and at last fixes on the plodding mechanic who stays at home and minds his business.
eye pride lord
Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, I see the lords of humankind pass by.
fond pursue
Too fond of the right to pursue the expedient.
subject winds
Is he like Burke, who winds into a subject like a serpent?
guarded requires scarcely sentinel virtue worth
The virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarcely worth the sentinel
absurdity champion defend error talkative
Every absurdity has a champion to defend it, for error is always talkative
children endearing followed good share
Even children followed with endearing wile,/ And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile.
aims far heart house known learned raise relieved skilled wretched
Far other aims his heart had learned to prize, / More skilled to raise the wretched than to rise. / His house was known to all the vagrant train, / He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain.
copy improve model people seldom themselves
People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after
beside fence
Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way, / With blossomed furze unprofitably gay.
coat priest religion shoes
As I take my shoes from the shoemaker, and my coat from the tailor, so I take my religion from the priest