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Notes and Commentaries

Volume 05, Number 1 (1980)

Goldsmith's Rising Village and the Colonial State of Mind

  • David Jackel
Soumise
mai 22, 2008
Publié-e
1980-01-01

Résumé

Oliver Goldsmith's Rising Village has been virtually derided by critics like Pacey and Cogswell, and defended by Kenneth J. Hughes. Actually, the poem's worth falls somewhere in between the two opposing critical appraisals. The Rising Village mostly fails in its attempt at presenting the success story of Nova Scotia, but the attempt itself is not necessarily irredeemable. The poem recreates a well-worn, even clichéd account of the colonial mentality; it has more to do with England than with Canada. The generalisations and abstractions of the diction -- which critics have so frequently castigated -- are actually intentional on Goldsmith's part; nevertheless, they are not wholly effective.