comparing John Dryden(TM)s The Fire of Lond

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      Compare two poems from the pre-1914 selection which use strong description and imagery. You should look closely at the language used.

For this essay I will be comparing John Dryden’s ‘The Fire of London’ that uses vivid description to portray the effect of the vicious fire on the helpless people of London; with Byron’s ‘Darkness’ which conveys a apocalyptic image of the earth after the volcanic eruption of Tambora (1815). Both of the poems use apocalyptic imagery to convey a sense of doom and destruction as ‘A dismal picture of the gen’ral doom’ (Dryden) and ‘The bright sun was extinguishe’d’ (Byron), both of the poems are different as Dryden and Byron describe the destructive events on a different scale with Byron describing the eruption as all of God’s creation being crippled by the events, Dryden however depicts only a small portion of the fire in his poem.

       

 In the first few lines of ‘The Fire of London’ Dryden expresses a sense of a ominous danger and uneasiness ‘night came, but without darkness or repose’ this expresses a sense of uneasiness  as there is an inversion which emphasises the fact that things are unbalanced making the reader feel uneasy and suspicious. Dryden also expands on the sense of danger ‘A dismal picture of the gen’ral doom’, ‘when the trumpet blows,’ by doing this Dryden conveys the fact that all is not well by using the apocalyptic imagery (‘gen’ral doom’) which hints that the world will end soon due to the horrific fire. Dryden again tells us of the horrific nature of the disaster ‘Souls… half unready with their bodies come.’ This emphasises the fact that the disaster was very sudden and unexpected using words such as ‘unready’ and ‘distracted.’ Dryden also uses plosive sounds to give the first stanza a very bleak and dark tone for example ‘dismal and doom’.

At the start of ‘Darkness’ Byron creates a natural rhythm by using iambic pentameter which then alters its natural pattern to stress the abnormal for example ‘rayless’ ‘pathless’ by doing this Byron highlights the fact that nothing about this disaster is expected and rarely happens, which also explains the fact why people struggle to cope with it. At the start of the poem Byron emphasises the size of the eruption saying that even ‘The bright sun was extinguish’d,’ by saying this Byron uses apocalyptic imagery to put across the sheer magnitude of the eruption and how the thing that has always been there for as long as humans have lived (‘The bright sun’) has been (‘extinguish’d’) which seems to hint that nothing is safe from the eruption. Byron again stresses the power and horrifying nature of the eruption by saying ‘the stars… swung blind and blackening in the moonless air,’ Byron seems to use the awkward nature of the stars to foresee what will happen to those that are caught in the sights of the volcano, that there future is set and they are doomed to suffer a catastrophic breakdown in their society. Byron also uses alliteration ‘blind and blackening’ to accentuate the unpleasantness and horrid nature of the eruption. Byron uses a sense of inversion ‘all hearts were chill’d,’ to create a feeling of abnormality as hearts are supposed to be warm but the disaster has caused them to be ‘chill’d.’  We see another example of how the eruption has levelled society in the line ‘The palaces of crowned kings-the huts… were burnt for beacons.’ The disaster seems to be used as a relentless equalising force that will stop at nothing to bring everybody to the same level. Byron mentions both the rich and the poor by doing this he shows how no one is safe from the disaster and the volcano will not spare anybody. What you once were and what you once had matters for nothing now ‘men gather’d round their blazing homes.’ Byron describes those who live close to volcano ‘happy were those who dwelt within the eye,’ Byron describes them as’ happy’ because they will die quickly and will not suffer the great pain and suffering of those not as lucky as them. Again Byron details how humans are affected by the destruction and horrifying nature of the disaster ‘and fed their funeral piles with fuel.’ Here Byron uses this descriptive imagery to state that humans have been reduced to fodder for the flames and there is nothing which can be done to save themselves. He tells us ‘their chins upon their clenched hands and smiled’ this shows that humans have seemingly accepted the fact they are going to suffer an inevitable death or it could show how the disaster has caused many to be driven to a crazed state of madness. We learn in the next few lines that it is not only humans who are effected by the volcano ‘wild birds… did flutter on the ground and flap their useless wings,’ here Byron uses a sense of inversion to display how much the disaster is affecting everything that becomes to its fiery clutches as you would expect wild birds to be fearless but they are described ‘wild birds did shriek’ and ‘terrified.’ Byron again uses a sense of inversion ‘the wildest brutes came tame and tremulous’ this again shows how even the ‘wildest’ of animals can become ‘tamed’ by the volcano. Byron also seems to compare animals to humans ‘gnash’d their teeth and howled’ by doing this Byron may be again implying how the volcano as levelled society or he could be using this imagery to show how the volcano has created a new type of human one that possesses inhuman and animal qualities. By describing it in this way Byron may also be hinting that humans have gone down on the evolutionary scale due to this disaster.

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In the second paragraph of Dryden’s ‘Fire of London’ we begin to see the perspective shrink as the poet starts to talk of certain people’s ‘last lodging,’ which highlights the fact that it is not a permanent home and is only temporary and not a place which could be called home and is not somewhere which is safe and secure to stay in, showing how badly the fire has affected the people. It could also be interpreted as being their last resting place which could be seen that Dryden is implying that there is no escape from the fiery ...

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