390 Boast of a florid vigor not their own. 195 At every draught more large and large they grow, A bloated mass of rank, unwieldy woe; Till sapp'd their strength, and every part unsound, Down, down they sink, and spread a ruin round. Even now the devastation is begun, And half the business of destruction done; Even now, methinks, as pondering here I stand, Down where yon anchoring vessel spreads the sail 400 That, idly waiting, flaps with every gale, Downward they move, a melancholy band, Pass from the shore, and darken all the strand. Contented Toil, and hospitable Care, And kind connubial Tenderness, are there; 405 And Piety with wishes plac'd above, And steady Loyalty, and faithful Love. And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid, Still first to fly where sensual joys invade; Unfit, in these degenerate times of shame, 410 To catch the heart, or strike for honest fame; Dear charming nymph, neglected and decried, My shame in crowds, my solitary pride; Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe, That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so; 415 Thou guide, by which the nobler arts excel, Thou nurse of every virtue, fare thee well! Farewell! and oh! where'er thy voice be tried, On Torno's cliffs, or Pambamarca's side, Whether where equinoctial fervors glow, 420 Or winter wraps the polar world in snow, Still let thy voice, prevailing over time, THE TRAVELLER. NOTES. Dr. Johnson was disposed to prefer The Traveller to The Deserted Village. "Take him as a poet," he said of Goldsmith, "his Traveller is a very fine performance. Ay, and so is his Deserted Village, were it not sometimes too much the echo of his Traveller." The poem was begun in Switzerland in 1755, but not finished till 1764. European travel was less common then than now, and Goldsmith's record of the reflections inspired by his wanderings had freshness for him and for his readers. DEDICATION. Dear Sir: The eighteenth century formality appears quaintly in this address to Goldsmith's brother. Even in public no one today would accost his brother as "Dear Sir." But it was characteristic of Goldsmith at his best to dedicate this poem to his brother, a poor Irish parson, at a time when it was the habit to dedicate verse to distinguished and wealthy patrons. What criticism have we not heard of late: Goldsmith is alluding to the movement in favor of freer versification and more lyrical measures, represented by the poetry of Gray and Collins. In points of form he threw himself on the side of the conventions of his day. A little later he alludes to the influence of politics on literary reputation. Churchill, at whom these bitter remarks were aimed, died before The Traveller was published. Line 1: "The story is told by Boswell that at a meeting of the Literary Club just after the publication of the poem somebody asked Goldsmith what he meant by the word 'slow'; did he mean tardiness of ocomotion? 'Yes,' replied Goldsmith, but Johnson caught him up, saying: 'No, sir, you did not mean tardiness of locomotion; you meant that sluggishness of mind which comes upon a man in solitude.' 'Ah, that was what I meant,' Goldsmith rejoined, accepting the more subtle interpretation." 3. The rude Carinthian boor: Carinthia is a mountainous duchy of Austria-Hungary, east of the Tyrol. Meredith's heroine in The Amazing Marriage is named for it. 5. Campania's Plain: Campania was the ancient name of a famous province in southern Italy. 10. In his Citizen of the World, Goldsmith repeats this sentiment in prose: "The farther I travel I feel the pain of separation with stronger force. Those ties that bind me to my native country and you are still unbroken; by every remove I only drag a greater length of chain." 26. Some fleeting good: This image of an endless journey in pursuit of the unattained ideal has always haunted the poets. It is curious to compare with this restrained passage a poem like Shelley's Alastor, which develops the same theme at the most intense moment of the romantic revival. 31. Where Alpine solitudes ascend: Is not this the first poetic treatment of Switzerland? Many were to follow, among which Coleridge's Hymn Before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni, and Byron's Manfred at once occur to mind. There is little distinctive in Goldsmith's treatment of the landscape, nor can we discover just where he is, except that from his vantage point he looks down over Italy. 41. School-taught pride: Intellectual pride, resulting from the teaching in schools of philosophy. 48. Dress the flowery vale: Our first parents were told to dress and keep the earth. Genesis II, 15. 60. Compare the search of the characters in Johnson's Rasselas for the happiest spot on earth. This is rather a favorite idea of the 18th century. In the 17th century Bunyan's Christian, quite unconcerned with happiness, starts out to find salvation. 69. The line is of course the equator. Cf. Ancient Mariner, gloss on part VI. 75. If countries we compare: Studies in racial psychology such as Goldsmith now leads up to are always as fascinating as they are elusive. But after the 18th century they are more often found in prose than in verse. The natural works with which to compare The Traveller are such books as Arnold Bennett's Your United States, Price Collier's England and the English, Emerson's English Traits, etc. 84. On Idra's cliffs: Idra, a Welsh mountain, 98. 103. Peculiar pain: Not a curious pain but a special pain. The personal touch in the simile at once quickens feeling. Most of the poem is so impersonal that it seems cold. 105. Very generalized description of Italian landscape. The day of the concrete in description has not dawned, and these lines might have been written by some one who had never seen Italy. 120. The fertility of Italy, on the contrary, is due to infinite labor and patience in the culture of the soil. Goldsmith writes from a provincial English point of view, sweepingly and inaccurately. 124. Sensual corresponds to sense in the preceding line: physical. Goldsmith's analysis of Italian character seems strangely unfair to the land of Dante and Michael Angelo. Though Italy, when he wrote, was at a low point of her spiritual and temporal fortunes, his tone toward her is in strange contrast to the tone of 19th century poets,-Byron, Swinburne, and the Brownings. 133. For wealth was theirs: The following lines allude to the Italy of the Renaissance. 136. The allusion is to the habit of the Renaissance of pillaging the ancient ruins which abound on Italian soil, for new building material. 166. Where rougher climes: Goldsmith gives no indication of the glory of Swiss landscape. He is wholly occupied, as is his custom, with the qualities of the inhabitants. Cf. Ruskin's study of the reaction of mountain scenery on character, in the chapters on "The Mountain Gloom" and "The Mountain Glory," Modern Painters, Vol. III. 190. The struggling savage: Beast is understood. 210 seq. Goldsmith attempts a balanced judgment. His study of the rude mountaineers who miss life's finer pleasures contrasts with his picture of the enervated Italians, spoiled by self-indulgence. Many people who know the Swiss peasant feel in him no lack of the "gentler morals." 240. France displays her bright domain: The treatment of France is far more sympathetic than that accorded to Italy or Switzerland. The lines are full of charming personal reminiscence, and the judgment is acute. The 18th century had more native affinity for the French genius than for that of any other country. The turn of Italy in exercising fascination was to come in the next century. 253. Gestic: "Relating to bodily gestures, referring particularly to dancing." The dancing instincts of the French found happy expression in the early and idyllic phases of the French Revolution, when Wordsworth saw the peasants in many a hamlet, dancing around the liberty tree, as he tells us in Book VI of the Prelude. 258. Honor forms the social temper here: An especially felicitous line to describe the French disposition. 284. A fine descriptive line. Much of Holland is protected by | embankment against the sea. 306. "Referring possibly to the custom which permitted parents to sell their children's labor for a term of years." 309. "In The Citizen of the World exactly the same words 'A nation once famous for setting the world an example recur. of freedom is now become a land of tyrants and a den of slaves.'" Goldsmith was as unfair in his comments on the Dutch as he was in his comments on the Italians. 313. Their Belgic sires: "Horum omnium fortissimae sunt Belgae," said Caesar, a judgment not disproved by late events. 318 seq. See a similar passage in The Citizen of the World. Coming to his own land, Goldsmith seeks to view its faults and virtues with disinterested eyes, and in proportion as he knew Englishmen better than Italians or Swiss or Dutch, his judgment is nore pertinent. 319. Arcadian pride: Arcadia was famous for its lawns. 320. Hydaspes: A large river, tributary to the Indus; known to the Greeks through Alexander's Indian campaign. 327. Pride in their port: A famous passage. Here is a resident of England and a native of the British Isles acknowledging the national arrogance that so irritates other people. 330. By forms unfashion'd: He is thinking of the love of the Latin races for formal institutions, compared with the individualism and independence of the English. 340. Severe but keen judgment. Cf. Carlyle on England, years later. 345-360. "It is extremely difficult to induce a number of free beings to co-operate for their mutual benefits: every possible advantage will necessarily be sought, and every attempt to procure it must be attended with a new fermentation." Citizen of the World. We may remember that within a century England had become, as Karl Marx pointed out, the classic land of laissez faire in industry and politics. Goldsmith indicates eloquently the rising dangers of commercialism and the mercenary spirit; but after all, his dark prophecy has never been fulfilled. 357. Noble stems: Latin stemmae, families, houses. 365. Fair Freedom: Freedom is already loved in England, though not as the Revolution was to love her, or as we love her now that democracy is in the air. 371-376. The theory sounds well, but what if the day should ever arrive when those who toil should also be those who think? 386. A succinct line. The sincerity of Goldsmith, and the importance of the idea to him are evident from the fact that this phrase is repeated in the Vicar of Wakefield, ch. 19. Here, as in The Deserted Village, the passion for social justice inspires his choicest eloquence. He is first and foremost a social critic, doing the same sort of work for his generation that Matthew Arnold did for our fathers. 396. Gave wealth to sway the mind: Gave the power to wealth. Goldsmith seems to lament, as Carlyle did, the good old days of absolute monarchy. 402. Here is the theme of his future poem, The Deserted Village. 412. And Niagara stuns: A fine pronunciation which we have |