For him no wretches, born to work and weep, Explore the mine, or tempt the dangerous deep ;] 105 No surly porter stands, in guilty state, To spurn imploring famine from the gate ;| Sweet was the sound, when oft, at evening's close, 15 The watch-dog's voice) that bay'd the whispering wind, | No cheerful murmurs fluctuate in the gale,| 105. Guilty state-Guilty is too strong a term. 108. Befriending . . . friend-Here is a des.gned alliteration, as in ill and ills, line 51. 116. Softened-Participial adjunct to the Pred. " came” (Gr. 78. d). 117-122 Swain, herd, geese, children, and voice, laugh-All in apposition with "these," and Subj. to "sought." A precisely similar construction to lines 25-30. 122. Vacant, i.e., free from care, se line 257. 123. These all, i.e., all these sounds, viz., the watch-dog's voice, the loud laugh, and (the sounds of) the swain, the herd, the geese, and the children. This joining together of several nouns, to all of which the predicate does not, in strict analysis, equally apply, is called a Zeugma. 129. But is here used as a preposition, equivalent to except, and governing “ thing.” She, wretched matron, forced, in age, for bread, The sad historian of the pensive plain. | Near yonder copse,) where once the garden smiled, | And passing rich with forty pounds a year ;| Nor e'er had changed,] nor wish'd to change, his place ;] 145 Unskilful he to fawn, or seek for power By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour ;] Whose beard descending swept his aged breast ; | Sat by his fire, and talk'd the night away ;] 131-136. The grammatical construction of these lines is rather loose; but it coheres better with the sense to regard she forced, and she left, as Nom. absolutes, qualifying the previous sentence, than to take them as separate sentences, with ellipsis of " is." 136. The pensive plain-Thoughtfulness is akin to seriousness and sadness, as mirth is to thoughtlessness: hence pensive is here so much as mournful, just as vacant (lines 122 and 257) stands for joyful. 138. And still where-A strange transposition for, and where still. 140. Modest mansion is almost a contradiction in terms, for a mansion is a grand house, but Goldsmith uses it simply for house, see lines 195, 238; but he may perhaps have had the Scottish term, manse, in his mind, used always of a minister's abode. 142. Passing, i.e., surpassingly; exceedingly, as passing fair. 148. More bent-The partic. refers not to the subject heart (which certainly was not "bent to rise") but to the pronoun he, which lies involved in his. Wept o'er his wounds, or, tales of sorrow done,] Shoulder'd his crutch,] and show'd] how fields were won. | Pleased with his guests, the good man learn'd to glow,| 160 And quite forgot their vices in their woe ;] Careless their merits or their faults to scan, Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride, | And even his failings lean'd to virtue's side; 165 But in his duty prompt at every call, He watch'd] and wept,] he pray'd] and felt, for all :] Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul;| At church, with meek and unaffected grace, Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway, 180 And fools,) who came to scoff, | remain'd to pray.) The service past, around the pious man, With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran ;| Their welfare pleased him, | and their cares distress'd :] 157. Sorrow done-Done is here used for passed, gone by. 163. To relieve the wretched-Subj. Gr. 71. 1. 172. Construe-And where sorrow, guilt, and pain, did dismay by turns. The object B [As some tall cliff] that lifts its awful form, | 190 Swells from the vale,] and midway leaves the storm,] Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, I Eternal sunshine settles on its head. Beside yon straggling fence) that skirts the way, 195 There, in his noisy mansion, skill'd to rule, Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee and cipher too ;] terms and tides presage,] 215 And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew,| That one small head should carry all | he knew.] 189. As... head-This beautiful sentence is syntactically considered irregular; it is in technical language an anacoluthon, the end does not correspond with the beginning. The subject is cliff in the first part, but in the latter it is shifted to sunshine. 195. Skilled to rule-Adj. to Subj. master. 198. I knew him well, and every truant knew, sc. to be severe and stern-referring to the previous line. 199. To trace the day's disasters in his morning face-Obj. to learned. Gr. 75. 1. 4. 208. He could write and cipher too-The Conj. that is understood. The whole is a Subs. Sent., in apposition with it involved in 'Twas; consequently, all acting as Subj. to the Pred. "was certain." 209. He could measure land, and calculate astronomical periods. But past is all his fame. The very spot) Near yonder thorn,) that lifts its head on high, The parlour splendours of that festive place; The twelve good rules, the royal game of goose; [Vain transitory splendours!] could not all No more the farmer's news, the barber's tale, 221. See note on line 172 226-234. All enlargements to the word splendours," and in the stjective relation to "trace." 232. The twelve good rules-ia aliwo a printed paper of maxime sen en is vod public-houses. Game of ge- inand with holes, and pegs in thes 238. Mansion See line 140, 102 |