The Village Schoolmaster

The Village Schoolmaster is an extract from Goldsmith’s famous long poem The Deserted Village (1770) in which he describes the decline of a village in Ireland in the nineteenth century. The extract describing the schoolmaster is said to have been inspired by one Thomas Byrne, an ex-soldier who taught Goldsmith when he was a boy. The poem has a rural background. It depicts scenes, people, manners and objects of a village in 18thcentury Britain. It is a pastoral lyric which abounds in pictures of village life and contains nostalgic reflections from Goldsmith’s boyhood days. The speaker fondly remembers his childhood schooldays at a village school. The poem is remembered for the formal simplicity of its language and poetic style, and for the sincerity of the emotions and sentiments that it expresses. The tone is sympathetic yet gently humorous. This poem is a simple word-picture of the tale of a village school master. It was a small village school at Lissoy, the Irish village where the poet himself had studied. Mr. Thomas Paddy Byrne was the village school master. This poem has become one of the immortals of literature because of the ring of authenticity, for he was a pupil of this school master. With a passing reference to the location,  the poet gets to work to describe the man.

The school master's moods, the situation in the classroom and the reactions of the learners have been described in this poem. It is sufficiently clear that Goldsmith lookedupon the teacher with the mixed feelings of fear, respect and humour.

TEACHER’S CHARACTER

His appearance was stern

He was a strict disciplinarian – the pupils were terrified of him

He was jovial by nature – joked with his pupils

He was kind

He loved learning and was intense about it

He was extremely knowledgeable – the villagers were amazed at all that he knew

He had very good debating skills – he could argue at length using long, difficult words. The poet gives a humorous study of the teacher's character but never loses his sympathy for him. He makes an analysis of the character and capabilities of the schoolmaster. He was a staunch disciplinarian who took his students to task if they played truant. The poet, as a student, was very aware of this aspect of the school master but he appreciated his stand and came to love and respect him. The severe measures taken by the teacher had a soft and pious motive behind them as he wanted to see his pupils 'turn into learned people. The school master's character is portrayed with many paradoxes. He is an able and strict man yet his school is always noisy. He is severe in manner but at the same time is jovial with a stock of seasoned jokes. He is supposed to be a great scholar though he can only read, write and solve simple sums of arithmetic. He is stern and yet kind. The school master is acknowledged as a great erudite person by the entire village and even the parson recognizes his skill in debate. The rhetoric of the teacher leaves the rustics gazing in admiration. The poem ends on a note of humour. The teacher is not to be taken as a mere satirical sketch. Apart from his scholarly pretensions, he has been a remarkably kind and benevolent gentleman. The frown on his face often hides a heart overflowing with love and sympathy. He has a smattering of useful information which he puts to good use with the illiterate and ignorant villagers. Thus he projects a larger than life image of himself before them. He has an opinion on every issue and loves to engage in debates particularly with the village priest He knows that in the eyes of the villagers the outcome of the debate depends more on sound than on sense. Hence he continues arguing even after he has lost his point