Can i get the theme of poem “the village school master”?
It’s a gently mocking, affectionate portrait of a village schoolmaster of “the good ol’ days” — a guy who was the ultimate big fish in a small pond … Look how this couplet undercuts the schoolmaster’s learning: The village all declar’d how much he knew; ‘Twas certain he could write, and cipher too: I mean — he could write and add — not really that impressive, except in some hick village. On the one hand, this guy was fairly learned for the village … and he probably did have a “love of learning” … but at other points, Oliver Goldsmith, bigdeal London romantic poetry, the ultimate “local boy made good” pokes fun at him: In arguing too, the person own’d his skill, For e’en though vanquish’d he could argue still; In other words, he’d keep arguing even when it was clear that he had lost the argument. — So yeah, the poem finishes on a typical “sic transit” note — he was once famous in the village, but now the village and its little school are both abandoned, forgotten … but for
