NOTES TO THE POEMS
The Village Preacher and The Village Schoolmaster.
Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) was the son of an Irish
clergyman—the kindly Mr. Primrose of " The Vicar
of Wakefield." After desultory studies at Dublin,
Edinburgh, and Leyden, he travelled on foot over
France, Switzerland, and Italy, earning his living by
his flute. On his return to London, he produced
various types of work : essays, collected in " The
Citizen of the World " ; a novel, " The Vicar of
Wakefield " ; two plays, " The Good-natured Man"
and " She Stoops to Conquer " ; and a few poems,
including " The Traveller" and " The Deserted
Village." ^ His kindly humour and universal good-
nature shines through all he wrote, and a natural
and limpid style of exquisite charm has placed his
work among the classics.
P. 101, 1. 24. Passing : very (surpassingly).
P. 102, 1. 5. The vagrant train : beggars.
1. 7. Long-remembered: here meaning' with a long memory;
store of memories.'
P. 103, 1. 30. Cypher : to count, do arithmetic.
1. 32. Gauge : to measure (volume).
The Tiger.
William Blake (1757-1827) was born in London and
became an engraver and printer. He issued and
illustrated his own poems, of which the best known are
"Songs of Innocence" (1787) and "Songs of Ex-
perience" (1794). At his best Blake combines a
childlike simplicity with the vivid imagery and pene-
trating vision of a fervid mystic.
The Solitary Reaper.
This poem was suggested by the following sentence from
Wilkinson's " Tour of Scotland " :—
" Passed a female who was reaping alone : she sung
in Erse as she bended over her sickle ; the sweetest
human voice I ever heard ; her strains were tenderly
melancholy, and felt delicious, long after they were
heard no more."
Upon Westminster Bridge.
This poem should be compared with the prose descrip-
tion of the same scene in Dorothy Wordsworth's
"Journal":
^ " We mounted the Dover coach at Charing Cross.
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