London is the capital if England. With the changes of history and times, and the vicissitudes of the world, this old-line and beautiful city has formed the humanistic spirit with national characteristics. After reading the two Williams’ works, I couldn’t hold back my curiosity about the differences in their poems. Although Black and Wordsworth are all important representatives of romantic poets, their writing styles and points of view vary so much. How could London vary so much in two productions? What caused the disparity? This sends me thinking deeply.
First and foremost, the most possible reason is the background. The two writers stayed in two different ages, so it’s hard to avoid the difference in their writing styles. London by William
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When Blake wrote down this poem, he was wandering around in the street, with painful contemplation oppressed him, and the darkness of evening fell over him. He saw the weak and whacked faces of people who came home late after the tiresome work for a whole day, that made him feel grieved. People, including the poet, all suffered from huge pressure, that is not only brought by life, but also from mental confinement. Every ban which is issued compulsively by the government was the cruel chains to people. As a result, the poet let off his anger in this poem and disclose the corruption of the current society. As readers read the whole poem line by line, we may be affected by the dark and miserable society. However, when another poet, Wordsworth arrived at London, what he saw was the beautiful dawn and the quiet early morning. In the first line of the sonnet, the poet emphasizes that London is the most beautiful on earth: “Earth has not anything to show more fair, dull would he be of soul who could pass by, a sight so touching in its majesty.” At that time, the big city was still sleeping, all the ships were berthed at the harbor, the towers and the domes amazed him, there were even theatres and temples for people to entertain and pray. All these things are “bright and glittering”, making the city active and vivid. Everyone living in this city, or travelers who …show more content…
Although they were all in London, the characters in their poems differed in thousands of ways. The poem written by Blake pressed close to the daily life of citizens who lived in London. He focused mostly on the poor and common people, like infants, soldiers and harlot, and he used ordinary words to express his personal feelings. The words like “weakness”, “woe”, “cry”, “fear” and so on, they all became the representative words of streetscape of London. The poet meticulously portrayed the form and emotion of every person, that brought stirring effect to readers. The poet represents the sound and picture of London to us. The pedestrians’ sadness on their faces, the little baby’s crying caused by shock, the noise on the road, the shouting of the chimney-sweeper, the curses of the prostitutes, these representative pictures line on the “charter’d street”, raise the readers’ sympathy, strengthen its drama part. In this poetry, “In every …” is repeated three times, with this strong repetition, Blake mixes literal and metaphorical meaning in a disturbing and powerful way. Faces bear marks, marriage is destroyed, both are signs of the corruption and decay of a city whose streets are chartered and whose rivers are even chartered too. The chartered river is one of the images of natural life turned rotten and corrupt. William Blake uses his poetry as a means of social criticism. Wordsworth, however, the view in his poem is a distant
In ‘London’ Blake presents the theme of power through a reportage. The narrator wanders through a ‘chartered street’ and by ‘the chartered Thames’. This shows that in the narrator’s eyes the streets are owned and even an aspect of nature such as the River Thames is in ownership of someone. These owners that Blake refers to is the state who are believed to have acquired so much power that they can own natural landmarks. Due to this power, the people in ‘London’ wear metaphorical ‘manacles’ that are ‘mind-forged’ which shows they have trapped themselves due to the pain and suffering the higher class has caused them. Also, the repetition
Poems consist of a variation of different techniques in order to convey a message or idea to readers. Wilfred Owen, Thomas Hardy, Adrienne Rich, Bruce Dawe and Robert Browning are great poets who explore these issues, conveying their emotions, which influences a perception of an issue. In each of their poems they express the hidden message of hope, along with their main message. They use similar techniques to express their ideas, which illustrates their purpose to the reader.
One way that Blake uses to convey his anger on what he sees is through
When reading these poems, several differences are obvious immediately. London, 1802 was written in 1802, while Douglass was written about one-hundred years later. This time difference is important because it shows the perseverance of the issue, even one-hundred years later. Another difference is the location in which the poems take place. London, 1802 takes place in London while Douglass takes place in the United States.
William Blake’s “London” and Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” appear to have little in common. Although at first they may seem different, they have many hidden similarities. Ultimately, Blake and Owen enhance the overall message presented in their poems by allowing the reader to fully gasp the meaning by connecting them through their senses, the overall consequences of the event, and the importance of the issue.
A Comparison of Poems About London 'London', by William Blake, and William Wordsworth's untitled poem, composed on Westminster Bridge, are two different poems written with different styles and techniques to portray their feelings towards London. They are both written in the romantic era and are very passionate in the way they convey their (as both are written in first person) differing opinions on London. Wordsworth's sonnet shows all the positive points and that in his opinion London is an admirable place. However, Blake speaks of a much bleaker London, which contrasts greatly in opinion. Rather than writing his poem on opinion, he uses fact to inform and protest against what he feels is wrong
In "London", William Blake brings to light a city overrun by poverty and hardship. Blake discards the common, glorifying view of London and replaces it with his idea of truth. London is nothing more but a city strapped by harsh economic times where Royalty and other venues of power have allowed morality and goodness to deteriorate so that suffering and poverty are all that exist. It is with the use of three distinct metaphors; "mind-forg'd manacles", "blackning Church", and "Marriage hearse", that Blake conveys the idea of a city that suffers from physical and psychological imprisonment, social oppression, and an unraveling moral society.
London by William Blake is a poem characterised by its dark and overbearing tone. It is a glimpse at a period of England's history (particularly London) during war and poverty, experienced by the narrator as he walks through the streets. Using personification it draws a great human aspect to its representation of thoughts and beliefs of the narrator.
William Wordsworth begins his poem by calling out to another poet of an earlier time period, “Milton! Thou should’st be living at this hour:”(1). Wordsworth calls forth Milton because he knows that London is need of serious revisions. Wordsworth then portrays London, “she is fen of stagnant waters: altar, swords, and pen, fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower”(3-4). With a combination of both word play and imagery Wordsworth is able to express his perspective of London. He displays how the growth in beginning to plateau as he uses, “she is fen of stagnant waters”. He then uses words like altar, sword, pen, fireside, and heroic wealth of hall and bower to represent larger pieces of London. The altar represents London’s religious practices, sword represents the military engagements, pen represents the literature, fireside is the society that he sees himself in, and the heroic wealth of the bower is the economic struggle of London. Wordsworth is afraid that the citizens are in too much of a haze to remember their goals, “Have fortified their ancient English dower of inward happiness. We are selfish men”(5-6). He then makes another call to Milton to help the city recover, “Oh! Raise us up, return to us again; And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power”(7-8). Wordsworth then begins to further complement Milton, “ Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free”(10-11). Wordsworth portrays a city that is no longer able to recover without a great leader. He speaks very highly of Milton and believes that he would be the right man for the task and that he would be able to bring the “ancient English dower” back into London. Milton was a man of his word and paid great attention to all classes of individuals in London, “ In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart the lowliest duties on herself did lay”(12-13).
and that he believes them. The poem also translates into how living in the city is toilsome and that the city is unrelenting. On the other hand it shows how the city can be prosperous and happy with the city’s disadvantages. in the second half of the poem it’s telling how nomatter what is wrong with the city, the people are still proud of who they are.
During the Romantic Era in Britain, William Blake and William Wordsworth were two of the notorious poets within the “Big 6”. Although they wrote about different subjects, there was one subject that both William Blake and William Wordsworth spoke about - London. In his poem “London”, William Blake is able to express his indignation at the corruption of the English society that London incorporates within the daily lives of London’s citizens. However, in his poem “Composed upon Western Bridge”, William Wordsworth is able to the nature of London and the beauty that lies within through the city’s citizens, streets, and environment and community that London brings upon its people. Through their use of rhetorical devices, William Blake and William Wordsworth were able to illustrate
William Blake’s poem “London” takes a complex look at life in London, England during the late seventeen hundreds into the early eighteen hundreds as he lived and experienced it. Blake’s use of ambiguous and double meaning words makes this poem both complex and interesting. Through the following explication I will unravel these complexities to show how this is an interesting poem.
The two authors have very different ways of expressing their own views on London. While Blake may use crude language to describe his experience, Wordsworth makes the city appear so pleasant and warm. When Wordsworth writes about London, he describes it as a beautiful, charming place that is clear and peaceful; Like when he writes “All bright and glittering in the smokeless air” (8) he describes the air as a bright place that isn’t polluted with the factories and mess. Unlike Wordsworth, Blake describes London as a dark dirty place filled with desperation and fear. For example, when Blake writes “In every cry of every man” (5) he tells the reader about the people of London who are crying for help in the painful, tear-jerking city of London; due to the fact that this was written in a time of the industrial revolution when children were forced into labor, and families were torn apart with work and couldn’t provide. The world in which Blake was experiencing was a sad and desperate time, unlike Wordsworth. Despite the constant contrast of language and descriptives, they are both still talking about the same city.
Wordsworth, like many beggars, is found outside of the house of the protagonist, only he comes with a much stranger request. He asks to look at the bees in the grugru trees of the boy’s yard. As odd as it is, B. Wordsworth divulges in the boy that he is “the greatest poet.” He spends the majority of his days admiring with his gaze the wonders of Nature; an assortment of bugs and even morning glories, and cries over them. We learn, from the curiosity of the boy, that the ‘B’ in the poet’s name stands for Black, and that his brother is “White Wordsworth” and they “share on heart.” White Wordsworth is the name given to the famed poet of the Romantic Age, Williams Wordsworth. Seeing that he calls him ‘White’ based on his skin colour, we can carefully deduce that ‘Black’ is not his real name. It is a name taken on by him. In the face of invasion, Black forsakes his Trinidadian identity and embraces a new, more ‘appropriate’ one, based on a traditional English poet. Like his ‘brother,’ we see the strong admiration for Nature in
William Blake and his works have been discussed all his life and he always portrayed them in is poetry. It is his experiences and disgust with London society in the late 18th century .