Lost in Memories: A Study of Oliver Goldsmith’s “The Deserted Village” and R. Parthasarathy’s “Under Another Sky”

Abstract

Ancients and moderns take us to literature without walls. World poetry creates an endless ripple. As a mark to that here are two poems which lament on the past. “Under Another Sky” by R.Parthasarathy and “The Deserted Village” by Oliver Goldsmith describe the two poets’ nostalgic emotions when they returned to their homeland. Parthasarathy sweetly recollects his hometown Chennai, a Metropolitan City, and bitterly describes the changes that took place in the ambiance after the British rule, when he returns from England after his self-imposed exile. Oliver Goldsmith returns tothe village that he knew as vibrant and alive, and finds it deserted and overgrown, and the people have migrated to several places. Though it is an imaginary village named ‘Auburn’ he gives life to it. Chennai is inflated with population whereas in population Auburn is deflated. By comparing these two poems also we come to know the vicissitude of Time and resultant transition.