In poetry, place is important because it creates an atmosphere which expresses people's feelings. Wordsworth and Blake's inspiration has come from London like many poets have done over the centuries. Places and environments make a point about people and society, e.g.
business people would be in London because it is a popular place for most people to work and also is an attractive setting.During this topic I will be writing about the poems by Blake and Wordsworth and their views of London, and compare these to one another. Over time poets have had different views and opinions of London because London has changed in many different ways over the years. The main poems I will be talking about is 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge' (1801) and 'London' (1802) by William Wordsworth, and 'London' (1827) by William Blake. Others that may be mentioned are 'Art of walking the streets of London' by John Gay. 'To the great metropolis' by Arthur Huge Clough.
'Symphony in yellow' by Oscar Wilde.William Wordsworth and William Blake both have opposite opinions, ideas and thoughts of what London life is like. I.E. London by Blake, - makes London seem that everyone and everything is controlled and unhappy.
Composed upon Westminster Bridge by Wordsworth, - says that London is the best place on earth and that it beautiful and peaceful in the mornings.William Wordsworth 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge' is a poem about London in a positive way. Like the bold opening statement, 'Earth has not anything to show more fair' which means that Wordsworth thinks that London is the best place on earth. He makes the city seem like it wears the beauty of morning by saying 'this city now doth, like a garment, wear the beauty of the morning; silent and bare. When he mentions 'Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep' he tries to tell us that he has never felt so calm in any other places compared to London. The last three lines show that London is alive which makes London more special.
This poem was written in the morning and shows Wordsworth's clear love for London.William Blake 'London'. Blake's views of London are negative. He talks about diseases and the church being black to help put a picture in our mind of how dirty London is. He shows the feelings of people who aren't wealthy and married people would probably would of gone with a child prostitute.
Blake is trying to get a point across that London isn't just unpleasant for the wealthy but is also torture for the poor. Blake says 'The mind-forg'd manacles I hear' which means that they are being brain washed or thought controlled. Which can be a very powerful image.Wordsworth wrote 'London' in 1802. It is a poem not so much about London but about the expense of life and was addressed to Milton as Wordsworth's looked to him as an embodiment of past values that appears lost. It shows that because he mentions that it is 'majestic', 'wealthy' and 'heroic'.
Also in the 1st line ref. It says 'Milton!' which shows how passionately he feels about Milton and how positively his values represent. In line refs 12-13 'so didst thou travel on life's common way, in cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart.' Refers to Milton and how Milton lived life as it should be lived 'in cheerful godliness' i.e.
a good Christian life.'To the great metropolis' by Arthur Hugh Clough. Clough was a republican (disagrees with monarchy). He dislikes Victorian capitalist systems. The poem describes London in a negative way. You can tell it's a negative poem because he says 'if symbols of wealthy are all that makes a capital then London is one' and 'Only capitalist values and London has no qualities'.
Whereas, 'Symphony in yellow' by Oscar Wilde, is a positive poem. It talks about summer autumn and winter, all in positive ways. You can tell it is positive because when he talks about fog it says how is maybe soft and silky. It is a colourful poem but there are some signs of greed.'The art of walking the streets of London' by John Gay, is both negative and positive.
It starts of negative and ends positive. This is as it goes through the seasons. It starts off negative by saying ' dirty waters' which means there were no toilets and people would probably have thrown their waste out the windows. You can tell its getting positive as you go through because it starts talking about the trade mark getting better and more successful.Wordsworth (composed upon Westminster bridge) uses similes ('like a garment') and personification ('the river glideth at his own sweet will'); because these helps establish the poet point of view by his choice of comparison he finds whether he sees the subject in a positive light of a negative one e.
g. he has linked 'like a garment' to the beauty of the morning because the garment is normally beautiful.Words like 'smokeless air' refer to the poem as London being radiant and clean, and he uses 'bright and glittering' as positive words to describe the city. 'Majesty' which will suggest royalty and 'mighty heart' suggests city has a heart and makes it seem alive. During the poem Wordsworth is always talking in first person.
Whereas, in 'London' Wordsworth, is talking in second person. In Wordsworth's poems they are always positive. Not just in London but also to the Milton.The structure of the poem is a sonnet, 10 syllables per line, 14 lines altogether.
It is a regular rhythm (rhyme scheme), and is an octet and sestet. I feel that the sonnet is appropriate for this poem because it's a beautiful poem and the sonnet has a wonderful rhythm.In Blake's poem 'London' he uses repetition to re-enforce ideas, to emphasise the last line of the stanza and to give a poem a rhythm. Blake is also uses metaphors for e.g.
'runs in blood down palace walls'. Particular words that Blake uses to make the poem more affective and to make the poem get his views across are words like, 'manacles', 'cry', 'blasts' and 'hapless' and 'youthful harlots'. Manacles (metal cuffs) make the poem seem as if people probably poor people are tortured or in danger. Saying that people are 'crying' shows that people are go through pain.
Blake also talks in 1st person. He uses very effective words and lines, which can really grab your attention. Blake talks about London in a negative way. The poem is a 4 stanza 4 lines it has a regular rhythm and rhythm scheme.
John Gay, Arthur Hugh Clough and Oscar Wilde all use imagery. For example in John Gay's ' walking the streets of London' uses alliteration in lines 3+4+8, for e.g. the series of 's' sounds throughout line 5. This makes you drawn into the poem.
Words like 'traffic' in 'to the great metropolis' shows that the trade and the amount of people there are. 'Crawls like a yellow butterfly' in 'symphony in yellow' a simile, which associates with beauty and fragility. 'To the great metropolis' was in the 1st person. The poem is not personal, it just says what he saw in, and the way he wrote it makes you get the feel of what he was feeling, he didn't say anything about the way he felt about anyone else like William Wordsworth did in 'London' (about Milton).
John Gays poem started negative and ended positive. John made his poem sound lively and rhythmic, almost song like. The rhyme scheme is 8 pairs of rhyming couplets.Arthur Hugh Clough was negative.
He's used the structure to show a change in the after octet and explains in detail what he likes and dislikes. Oscar Wilde was positive. The 'symphony in yellow had a regular rhythm and rhyme. It has 3 stanzas, which are all equal lengths. (abba, cddc, effe).
In 'London' by Blake he has underlying messages. E.g. about the church being in an unstable way by saying 'every black'ning church appalls' which is saying that the church could be black from soot and dirt or it could be a metaphor saying that church does not help those in need. Whereas William Wordsworth in 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge', says 'in his first splendour, valley, rock or hill' he is saying that he feels the city is better clean and natural.
To summarise, all poets talk about London but all in their own ways, positive or negative. London inspired all the poets in different ways, some about the state of the people and society, some about the beauty, and then some through devastation of the way people are treated and how some people's life style are. All the poets have different views but all of which are strong arguments and points which all of London conceive.
