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
fond love taste
I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines; and, I believe, Dorothy, you'll own I have been pretty fond of an old wife.
felicity ourselves
Still to ourselves in every place consigned, / Our own felicity we make or find.
bashful glance looks
The bashful virgin's side-long looks of love,/ The matron's glance that would those looks reprove.
mere
I'm now no more than a mere lodger in my own house.
beneath sweet
Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.
land nurse
The land of scholars, and the nurse of arms.
game good royal rules twelve
The twelve good rules, the royal game of goose.
laugh loud spoke vacant voice whispering
The watch-dog's voice that bayed the whispering wind, / And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.
govern thoughts-and-thinking
Those that think must govern those that toil.
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.
beside fence
Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way, / With blossomed furze unprofitably gay.
fond pursue
Too fond of the right to pursue the expedient.