Gray imagines a new kind of Muse who inspires the writers of
crude epitaphs.
[15.] For thee, who mindful, etc. Gray refers to himself as the writer
of this poem.
[16.] Chance, perchance.
[17.] Swain, countryman. By _swain_ the poets usually mean a country
gallant or lover.
[18.] Lawn, a cleared place in a wood, not cultivated. Now, of course,
the word always means grassland near a house which is kept closely cut.
[19.] Science, knowledge in general, not natural science only.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
1728-1774
Goldsmith was born in Pallas, an out-of-the-way hamlet in Longford
County, Ireland, where his father, the curate, was looked upon as
"passing rich, with forty pounds a year." Not long after, the family
removed to Lissoy, in the County of Westmeath, where they lived in much
comfort. Here Oliver passed his childhood and youth, and it is
doubtless to Lissoy that his thoughts returned when he wrote of "Sweet
Auburn, loveliest village of the plain." As a boy he had his share of
troubles. In school he was pronounced "a stupid, heavy blockhead," and
he was often made sport of by his companions on account of his awkward
figure and his homely face, pitted with the smallpox.
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