In: Psychology
Examine the way Goldsmith constructs the "poet" of The Deserted Village and the inhabitants of the now desolate village. How is the poet's return to his homeland both sentmental and ironic?
It is a personal and individual experience of poet which he penned in poem. He struggled for survival in England and remained improvised until the end of his life. The only way home was on that twin rigged sailing ship of his imagination. So it is very emotional and sentimental for him to return his homeland where he never could return in real life .
And at the same time it is ironical because irony exists when what is expected and what occurs are in conflict with each other. So in the poem it is not like his homeland which he imagined , it is an obsolete village from where peoples are migrating.