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GATE 2026 XH2 (English) – Question 60

History of English Literature and Literary Studies · English Literary Traditions across Time: Chaucer to contemporary English literature · 2 marks · Multiple select

“Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn,
Thy sports are fled, and all thy charms withdrawn;
Amidst thy bowers the tyrant’s hand is seen,
And desolation saddens all thy green:
One only master grasps the whole domain,
And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain;
No more thy glassy brook reflects the day,
But choked with sedges, works its weedy way;
Along thy glades, a solitary guest,
The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest;
Amidst thy desert walks the lapwing flies,
And tires their echoes with unvaried cries.”

Which of the following does the excerpt imply?

  1. The poet is nostalgic about an idealized vision of rural life that is being lost.
  2. Nature is being ravaged by changes.
  3. External interference has reshaped the pastoral landscape.
  4. The poet laments the loss but sees it as an inevitable cost of development.

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Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: (A) The poet is nostalgic about an idealized vision of rural life that is being lost.; (B) Nature is being ravaged by changes.; (C) External interference has reshaped the pastoral landscape.

Explanation

These lines from Goldsmith's "The Deserted Village" look back fondly on a lost village (A), show its brook choked with sedges and the land left desolate (B), and blame 'the tyrant's hand' and the one master who grasps the whole domain (C). The poet condemns the change, so he does not treat it as an inevitable cost of progress (D).