OLIVER GOLDSMITH was born at Pallas, county of Longford, Ireland, on the 10th of November, 1728. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and afterwards studied medicine at Edinburgh and at Leyden. After travelling on foot through portions of Western Europe, he made his way to London, where he was in turn assistant to a chemist, usher in a school at Peckham, and literary hack for one of the leading monthly publications. He afterwards contributed many articles, both in prose and poetry, to the leading periodicals of the time. He wrote "The Traveller" in 1764, and "The Deserted Village" and _The Vicar of Wakefield_ in 1770. He died in his chambers in Brick Court, London, April 4, 1774. For a full account of his life, read Macaulay's Essay on Oliver Goldsmith. "The naturalness and ease of Goldsmith's poetry," says Edward Dowden, "are those of an accomplished craftsman. His verse, which flows towards the close of the period with such a gentle yet steady advance, is not less elaborated than that of Pope; and Goldsmith conceived his verse more in paragraphs than in couplets. His artless words were, each one, delicately chosen; his simple constructions were studiously sought." And Sir Walter Scott said of him: "It would be difficult to point out one among the English poets less likely to be excelled in his own style. Possessing much of Pope's versification without the monotonous structure of his lines; rising sometimes to the swell and fulness of Dryden, without his inflections; delicate and masterly in his descriptions; graceful in one of the greatest graces of poetry, its transitions; alike successful in his sportive or grave, his playful or melancholy mood; he may long bid defiance to the numerous competitors whom the friendship or flattery of the present age is so hastily arraying against him." =Other Poems to be Read:= The Traveller; the rest of The Deserted Village; Retaliation. REFERENCES: Irving's _Life of Goldsmith_; Forster's _Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith_; Macaulay's Essay on _Goldsmith_; Thackeray's _English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century_; De Quincey's _Eighteenth Century_; Hazlitt's _English Poets_; _Goldsmith_ (English Men of Letters), by William Black. Thomas Gray. THE BARD. I. 1. "Ruin seize thee, ruthless King! Confusion on thy banners wait; Tho' fanned by Conquest's crimson wing,{1} They mock the air with idle state.{2} Helm, nor hauberk's{3} twisted mail, Nor e'en thy virtues, Tyrant, shall avail To save thy secret soul from nightly fears, From Cambria's{4} curse, from Cambria's tears!" Such were the sounds that o'er the crested pride Of the first Edward scattered wild dismay, As down the steep of Snowdon's{5} shaggy side He wound with toilsome march his long array. Stout Gloster{6} stood aghast in speechless trance: "To arms!" cried Mortimer,{7} and couched his quivering lance. I. 2.