THE VILLAGE SCHOOL MASTER
📚 THE VILLAGE SCHOOL MASTER 📚 - Oliver Goldsmith The poet portrays the schoolmaster as a respected figure of learning in a rural village in which basic reading and writing skills were the highest education many villagers attained. The figure of the schoolmaster,therefore, is an awesome presence, a man deserving of respect and admiration. He is described thus: ‘ A man severe he was, and stern to view’, who commands respect from his pupils. The children ‘laugh’d with counterfeited glee’ at his many jokes, whether they were funny or not. Yet the schoolmaster is not a fearsome figure as the narrator is quick to point out: ‘ Yet he was kind; or if severe in aught, / The love he bore to learning was in fault’. His faults, if any, are due to his dedication to education and learning rather than as character defects. The villagers are impressed with his ability to read and write, measure lands, do complex calculations, and mark the cycle of religious ...