The way that MacNeice has constructed the poem is by conologically going through life experiences as we keep on reading. This is taken from the second stanza by asking God to not allow people to influence him into bad doings, where here he has a choice from early on in life to make the right decisions and choose the right pathway, however if he doesn’t this is related to the seventh stanza where his doings now turn into something which he has no control over and that it is “leathal automation”, due to the experience he is accustomed to.
Even the structure of the poem visually illustrates the beginning to the ending of his “life” as each stanza gets narrower. But by looking at the seventh Stanza, also its the language of the poem becoming quicker,as we proceed toward the end of the poem altogether
“…hither and thither or hither and thither..”
This in comparison to the poem ‘London’ by Wiliam Blake. Where by the poem is of the Romanics which tends to attack the form of experience as it is alongside innocence due to nature not nurture.
A poem of social protest, against the suffering of all who live in a world such as this. Written in 1789 (during the french revolution, and also the british industrial revolution).
It's about misery and human despair, the "mind forg'd manacles" of depression imprisoning people. The rapidly indutrialising economy and society corrupt and poisin all those who live in it.
This poem is about how people may disfunctionally go through experience and end up passing their knowledge through to the next innocent generation.
Blake tends to use the imagery of cjildren a lot as they symbolise purity and power. His argument is that if childhood is reacked then so is the the adult that they become. Throught every stage of his poem he uses a more innocent imagery of a child from “infant” to “new born infant”. Also he uses clever imagery of purity contrasted against impurity.
Quite a few oximorons are used to contast imagery in the poem. Showing how the worldof experience can quickly corruptand destroy the innocence.
“…Every black’ning Church appals;”
“Black’ning” meaning dirty metaphorically and also literally. This also shows the church which is appuled by the conditions but turns a blind eye, “black’ning” is contrasted with purity which is supposed to be of the church , but the chuch is blackned by turning a blind eye. This imagery is used to show the state of human nature which people usually turn a blind eye.
“…How the youthful Harlot’s curse”
Blake uses his imagery of a young prosititute, which here is also contrasted with innocence which is corrupted.
“…chimey-sweepers cry” is exploiting innocence. Becoming black,dark and tained. Also the dying breath of the solider,which is infact the last dying breath of the solider, this is about ordinary people killing ordinary people for causes which may not benefit them,thihs maybe could be connected to revolution. Therefore the running of blood down place walls,shows the guilt on the monarchy.
“…Runs in blood down place walls”
London is about how the controlling nature takes over innocence and the experience is now of automation. He shows this in the first stanza where theart of mapping, controlling, and resitricting are contrasted against the “flow” of the Thames.
Not a poem of observed factual detail but Blake's perception of London, he uses the traditional form of alternate rhyming lines to imitate the repititive predictability of the circle of suffering. Blake has experience of London so he is able to reflect back from when he was an innocent child to now of what he holds the knowledge of experience. This is shown in the first line of the poem:
“…I wander thro’ each charter’d street,”
The lyrical quality is quite simplistic it is not a performance based poem. Alliteration is used to addto the imagery Blake is trying to create of London. The words “weakness,” and “Woe” makes the poem sound of a feeble minded and gives the feeling of a spiritual lack of strengh of character.
In the second stanza “every” is used to add imact which is used constanmtly through the first, second and third lines.
The poem it self is quite short and in every stanza thereis four lines, the imagery is also quite strong in the short space Blake has used to give us an idea of what he feels London is all about. This could be due to having to get his point across to people
Both these poems, in my opinion, share feelings of concern and disgust for experience. If i had to pick which one I prefered I would choose the Blake poem. This is because the meaning of the words is more clearcut. I accept that the point of the MacNeice poem may be to leave it up to the reader to decide whether or not the poem is sarcastic or not.
But I dont consider this device to be particularly effective ; thought provoking maybe but not effective. The Blake poem is also more emotionally charged and melodramatic it is almost scary as the poem relates to London which is a mere 10-15 miles away and sadly corruption and sexually transmitted diseases are still relevant themes today.
