Oliver Goldsmith was born November 10, 1728.

Born on November 10, 1728, the Irish novelist, playwright and poet was renown for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield, his pastoral poem The Deserted Village and his plays The Good Natur’d Man and She Stoops to Conquer.  He also wrote the children’s tale The History of Goody Two-Shoes in 1765.  Goldsmith passed away on April 4, 1774.

In the 1760s, the demolition of an village and destruction of farms to clear land to become a garden for an aristocrat forms the basis of Goldsmith’s  most famous poem The Deserted Village.  It was written to express concern over the destruction of villages and conversion of agricultural lands into ornamental gardens would hasten the ruin of the peasantry.

The Deserted Village and other related poems may be read beginning here:

Alternatively, an example of Goldsmith’s poetry  may be listened to in an audiobook format here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCd-7LUAeqQ