During the 18th century, London was not charming, clean, and astounding, at least that's what William Blake thought. William Blake and William Wordsworth, poets of the romantic period, wrote poems about London. These two poets expressed how they felt about London about how it was at the time. Blake and Wordsworth create an image in a reader's mind of how they saw London, Blake’s image being dim and Wordsworth's image is brighter. Blake viewed London as an awful place, and Wordsworth viewed London as a cheerful place. Blake and Wordsworth used metaphors, a setting, and they call attention to the classes of the people to get their message to readers. Metaphors are a attractive way to get readers to keep reading. In addition to that, Blake …show more content…
Both poets describe what they see and hear in London. Blakes setting is more depressing and gloomy, and Wordsworth setting is happier and brighter. “In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;/ Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!” (10-11). Wordsworth is stating London is so calm and nice as he looks out onto the silent town. “In every cry of every man,/ In every Infant’s cry of fear,/ In every voice, in every ban,/ The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.” (5-8). Blake is stating London is horrible, as he hears cries down every street he walks through. Wordsworth creates an image in a reader's mind, an image that says London is great, beautiful, clean, calm, quiet, and dazzling. A nice morning, standing on the bridge looking out and seeing a peaceful town asleep. Green swaying grass and the smooth, warm sun on a face as another day a comes. Another example is if Wordsworth was painting what he saw. He would have used bright, warm colors with soft strokes. On the other hand, Blake creates an image that yells London is horrible. “But most, through midnight streets I hear” (13). Blake was ambling the streets at night, giving the image even more of a depressing place. Looking into the streets, a dirty, dark street, with cracks and loose rocks. With people crying and struggling to live another day in the cruel town. Painting wise, Blake would have used dark colors with harsh strokes. These are two different settings a reader can pick up from
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
such a terrifying beast?” and “Who is God who dares to make such a terrifying
these “female follies,” on men and argues, “From the tyranny of man, I firmly believe, the
William Blake was a renowned poet whose works continue to be recognized long after his death. Blake was more than a poet he was also a painter and printmaker. Often his engraving art would act as the accompanying image to his poetry. Throughout his lifetime the British poet wrote several poems. The vast majority of Blake’s work was centered on strong religious themes or human existence itself. However in the works Sick Rose and London neither of these common themes is present. Though the two poems are different in content they both share an
One way that Blake uses to convey his anger on what he sees is through
The topic of death is either suppressed or masked in both poems. Both poems are very strong and powerful pieces, which allows readers to connect to the issues being told. Throughout “London”, Blake not only implies the difficult times that London went through during the Industrial revolution, but also how many died during this
In the poem “The Tyger” by William Blake, the use of rhyme, repetition, allusion, and symbolism all help the reader understand the theme and what was going through the authors thoughts while writing. William Blake was a mystic poet who channeled his thoughts and questions to write poems. He questioned the creator of both the Tyger and lamb, how could the same God create a destructive creature like the Tyger and on the other hand create a gentle animal, the lamb. This ties into the theme of the poem of how a God could and would create a monster like the Tyger.
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
He talks about the fruit in the plots on the ground that will not become ripe, and as I can see in the painting the fruit is dead and not riping. He talks about the shrubs growing all over and I can see that in the painting. To me the words are showing sadness for the way it looks and I can feel the sadness just by looking at the painting. He talks about no animal life being around and in the painting there is no animals. He talks about the mountains and cliffs. Life, hills, rivers, and his love of nature is also mentioned and in Constables paintings there are hills, rivers, trees and animals , as Wordsworth has mentioned about nature. Wordsworth loves nature and all three paintings show nature at its finest and lowest of nature. In my opinion Wordswoth wanted to show how he felt about nature by showing how upset he feels about the abbey and his poem just happens to have some similarities to constables paintings also. I believe he did a wonderful job showing his view on
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 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.
“In Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth fears the loss of his genial spirit and seems to be worried about his poetic ability. Similarly, Coleridge, in Dejection, admits that his poetic originality is at stake” (Magnuson 15). In the forth stanza, Wordsworth writes, “Nor perchance / If I were not thus taught, should I the more / Suffer my genial spirits to decay” (113-115). Likewise, Coleridge, in the third stanza, writes, “My genial spirits fail” (39). Actually, both Coleridge and Wordsworth admit that they have been facing problems with nature. In the beginning of the third stanza, one can feel the sad tone of Wordsworth’s poem. The poet tells us how he lost part of his feelings toward nature. His ideas become “dim” and “faint.” He writes, “And now with gleams of half extinguished thought, / With many recognitions dim and faint, / And somewhat of a sad perplexity” (59-61). He cannot feel nature the same way he used to do as a child. Describing the way he was as a child, the poet says, “I cannot paint / What I was then” (76-77). Similarly, Coleridge asserts that he used to view nature differently as a child. In the beginning of the sixth stanza, he says, “There was a time when, though my path was rough, / This joy within me dallied with distress, / And all misfortunes were but the stuff”
William Blake is one of England’s most famous literary figures. He is remembered and admired for his skill as a painter, engraver, and poet. He was born on Nov. 28, 1757 to a poor Hosier’s family living in or around London. Being of a poor family, Blake received little in the way of comfort or education while growing up. Amazingly, he did not attend school for very long and dropped out shortly after learning to read and write so that he could work in his father’s shop. The life of a hosier however was not the right path for Blake as he exhibited early on a skill for reading and drawing. Blake’s skill for reading can be seen in his understanding for and use of works such as the Bible and Greek classic literature.
William Blake, John Keats and William Wordsworth all believe in the "depth" of the world and the possibilities of the human heart. However, each poet looks towards different periods in time to capture meaning in life. Blake looks towards the future for his inspiration, Keats towards the present and Wordsworth towards the past. Regardless of where each poet looks for their inspiration they are all looking for the same thing; timeless innocence. Each poet sought to transcend time by creating works that dealt with life, death, hope and imagination and to discover some kind of deep truth or meaning in existence. Life and death is an issue that we will all have to deal with at some point in our life