“And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe'
'In every cry of every man
In every infants cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban'
Blake gives his very negative view of London, focusing on the gap between the classes and the poverty that results. Yet Blake never writes this he makes it clear with all the poor young women having to sell their bodies "How the youthful harlots curse" and the children working from birth
"How the chimney sweepers cry"
He expresses his views of London being such a corrupt and filth ridden place. Blake’s view of London is very different to Wordsworth’s, the poem “composed upon Westminster bridge, September 3 1802” is a poem about the beauty and majesty of London in the morning before it comes alive. Wordsworth starts by stating his opinion that London is the most wonderful place in the world, “Earth has not anything to show more fair” and goes on to say that anyone who would happen to go past London and not admire it’s “beauty” then they are “Dull”, he says
“Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty”.
In the 4th line he uses personification to express how the city seems to ‘wear’ its beauty,
“This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,”
He talks of the things that he sees in the morning free from the hustle bustle of the day
“Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky”
In 1803 you would have seen all these things, but now there would be no fields surrounding that could be seen, Wordsworth saw London in it’s unspoiled atmosphere, before the smoke and smog of the city rises,
“All bright and glittering in the smokeless air”. He also uses personification again in this poem where he refers to the city as ‘he’, “In his first splendour” and he also uses this on the river Thames when he says “The river glideth at his own sweet will”.
In the last line he calls London “that mighty heart” as if it is the heart of the whole world to him. Both Blake and Wordsworth both see basically the same London, however it seems as if Wordsworth is just glancing over it in his writing, he is looking down on it, he is not down in it witnessing it ALL whereas Blake is writing from in London viewing its people and ways. Wordsworth is standing on top of Westminster bridge viewing the city and because it is so early in the morning he does not get a chance to watch the people rise and how the city functions. In “Inglan is a Bitch” The writer is an immigrant from Jamaica, he describes his different jobs in London and how they affect him. He uses colloquial language, written how he would speak. He uses refrains to separate each stanza in his poem. He tells us of his different jobs in London and how he is treated during these jobs. In every job he has there seems to be some way he is mistreated or does not enjoy his job.
For example
But workin’ pan di undahgroun
Y’u don’t get fi know your way aroun’
Fi dem fifteen years dem get mi laybah
Now awftwa fifteen years nu fall out a fayvah
He also tells us of how he is mistreated because of his race while he is working in London, and says how he could prove anybody wrong that thought black men are unequal to whites and “lazy”:
Dem she dat black man is very lazy
But it y’u si how mi wok y’u woulda sey mi crazy.
He, like Blake also sees the corrupt London and like Blake (as aforementioned) is witnessing it from the inside unlike Wordsworth who is looking down upon it.
Johnson states that he (the character in the poem whether is him or not, it is written in the first person) has worked many places in all kinds of conditions and uses repetition when he states this; this is very effective as it helps the poem flow as it did in Blake’s London. Johnson says:
Well mi dhu day wok an’ mid dhu nite wok
Mi dhu clean wok an’ mi dhu dutty wok
The refrains also utilise repetition and make the poem seem like a song. Johnsons way of reciting his poems was to speak them over a reggae bass line and occasionally a reggae band, he uses “dub” poetry as he calls it.
The fact in this poem that there is no repetition and no way of separation lines adds to the tone that Johnson is trying to convey, it builds in anger and despair throughout the whole poem and the fact that it runs on adds to it. Johnson’s poem echoes Blake’s but in a more personal way since it is about one person not the denizens of a whole city as Blake’s is. “Inglan is a bitch” was also written by a non-British person who was wronged by people, it is not a description more of a biography and timeline of a mans life. Not a depiction of what life is like in London in general but just for one person.
In conclusion I think that Blake and Johnson’s poems are similar but from a different perspective. And I found Blake’s to be most effective because of the bleak imagery that it conjures up. I think that Wordsworth’s is the least effective because he is not witnessing life in the city he is just looking at it from above.
