Oliver Goldsmith wrote the poem ‘The Deserted Village’ in protest against the social changes that he witnessed during his travels around England. There are numerous quotes in the poem that encapsulate the message that Goldsmith is trying to put across. The fictional village of Auburn has now become a place ‘where wealth accumulates, and men decay’; this is quite a disturbing image as it is now evident that Auburn is no longer the beautiful and rustic village that it was before the introduction of the Enclosure acts. The quote in question encapsulates the theme and is of extreme importance to ones understanding of the work; it sums up the message and the argument that Goldsmith is trying to put across. Goldsmith is completely condemning the new social changes that are taking place, he radically expresses his feelings against the rule of England through the medium of poetry. This is a fictional poem despite the fact that it is an account of an event that took place in history; it is Goldsmiths take on the effect of the enclosure acts on the lives of the peasants in England. Goldsmith gets his message across by describing the effect that these Enclosure acts are having on both the rural village of Auburn and indeed the impoverished peasants who once farmed the land. It can also be argued that Goldsmith was being completely over-dramatic when he wrote this poem some critics say that he idealized the English peasantry far too much and that the rural life he described in ‘The