How does The Deserted Village portray rural life?

In The Deserted Village, Oliver Goldsmith portrays rural life as an idealized, harmonious existence that is tragically under threat. The poem centers on the village of Auburn, depicting it as a nostalgic, thriving community that represents a virtuous way of life.1

Goldsmith contrasts this idyllic past with the harsh reality of 18th-century economic and political shifts. He highlights how the greed of landlords and the implementation of enclosure laws forced small farmers off their land to make way for expansive private estates. This displacement destroys the social fabric of the village, compelling residents to abandon their homes for the hardships of urban life in England or America. Ultimately, the poem serves as a lament for the loss of a simple, agrarian society, critiquing the systemic forces that prioritized wealth and land consolidation over the well-being of the rural poor.1