In complete contrast to this, Blake is walking through the ‘midnight streets’ of London, ‘wander[ing]’ through the depths of the city, and in the thick of social activities. Because he chooses to focus on human activity, and is actively observing and criticizing, Blake is able to delve much deeper into the London lifestyle, and present a more realistic image of the workings of London society. Consequently, he cannot even come close to forming such a happy, optimistic view of London as Wordsworth. His portrayal of London is set deep in the night, and with it comes all that we associate with darkness.
One of the first things Blake chooses to highlight is the sense of sadness and depression, the ‘marks of weakness’ and ‘woe’ in ‘every face’ he looks at. He emphasizes that these feelings are not just expressed by one or two, but all of those he passes by. We can instantly infer that Londoners have many sorrows, and that London itself is a very unhealthy environment for people, possibly both mentally and physically. The other emotions that Blake picks up around London prove to be no more uplifting – he hears the ‘cry of every man’ indicating that all the people are in anguish, calling for help -to seemingly no one in particular – feeling bereft and hopeless.
Amongst those who are crying out, Blake chooses to focus on children. He refers to the ‘infant’s cry of fear’, which suggests that the child was not protected in society – there was no sense of the security or shelter that children aught to be provided with, and so children were justifiably afraid. We can infer that due to this, they became easy victims of poverty. Blake notifies us of the plight of ‘the chimney sweeper’ – young boys with bodies small enough to climb up chimneys to clear the soot – a job that was horrific in its risk of death as well as its suffocating, dark conditions. Young girls were drawn into an occupation even more damaging to society – prostitution. This is a topic that seems to worry Blake the most, and he develops his critique against it. He writes that ‘most …[he] hear[s] how the youthful harlot’s curse …blights with plagues the marriage hearse.’ In this verse, Blake is not only highlighting how the impoverished young women of London are driven into prostitution, but he is also criticising the sexual norms of the time for helping foster the practice, consequently destroying marriages and spreading sexually transmitted diseases. At the time, women who wanted to remain respectable in society had to be chaste and were expected to be virgins at marriage. But that is not all – once married, there were only certain times when it was proper for couples to have sex, and even then, the only purpose was to have children. Men had to go elsewhere to satisfy their desires, and therefore, there was a great demand for prostitutes.
Amongst all this immorality, Blake makes it clear that he feels the church, and other institutions, are failing in their roles to help alleviate society’s problems. The ‘blackening church appals’ him. His choice of the word ‘blackening’ is fitting and effective – it can be interpreted both literally and metaphorically – the soot and polluted air of London during the industrial revolution would have left its ever darkening mark on Church buildings, whereas the blind eye that churches turned towards the state of London’s impoverished reflected a moral ‘blackening’. Another institution Blake condemns is the government, which, like the church, abandoned the people. He implies that it is divisive – how the monarchs are safe in the ‘palace walls’, protected by soldiers, isolated from the reality of London. He criticizes how the governing bodies allow and nurture the ‘chartered street[s]’, dividing the city by ownership. We can also infer from the tone of the poem, that Blake is aggravated by the ever widening division between rich and poor, the noble and the common; The power that is concentrated within the rich and ruling elite, maintained by the ‘hapless soldier’ whose duty is to subdue the discontented populace – paying the price in ‘blood [running] down palace walls’.
Blake describes the soldiers as ‘hapless’, implying that they are ill-fated to be in this position, and are stuck in it. The theme of captivity is one that recurs frequently in the poem. Blake’s repetition of the word ‘every’ emphasizes that the grim, desolate atmosphere of London is all-encompassing and inescapable. The phrase ‘Mind-forged manacles’ indicates that people were not physically, but mentally chained to each other. This implies that everyone contributed to each others downfall, and because people did not care about anyone else’s situation, and those institutions that were supposed to provide a safety-net for society were ineffective, the outlook was bleak and the cycle of poverty would remain. The fact that the youth of London were the ones hit worst demonstrates that there was no bright future for London – already the ‘harlot’s’ ‘new-born infant’ is instantaneously born into the bottom of society, and can never be expected to break out their social standing, representing the cycle of entrapment even more.
What amazes me the most about Blake’s poem is the way he has managed to subtly convey such a vast amount of criticism, covering so many different aspects of eighteenth century society, in such a short poem. The poem is organised into 4 verses of 4 lines each; which makes the poem seem serious. The spaces in between each verse seem to make the reader pause and think about the enormity and importance of the topics Blake has just raised, making his work seem more like a report analysing London than a poem. Blake’s decision to simply name the poem ‘London’ further proves this. Blake’s intention in writing this poem is to protest against the ills of society, and to educate his readers and make them reflect on the issues he has raised.
‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge’, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. Wordsworth dwells happily on the spectacle in front of him, and so his poem is nowhere near as comprehensive and condemning as Blake’s. It is a sonnet, and therefore seems like a love poem rather than an analytical one. The word ‘Composed’ in the title indicates that the poem is a work of art, a musical piece, an ode to London and Wordsworth’s expression of love for it. The words flow along, and the use of semi colons and colons connect one line with the next. This gives the poem a relaxed, peaceful tone, making it seems that in this haven, Wordsworth can forget all his worries, as he has ‘never felt a calm so deep!’ His joy and exhilaration shines through the poem because of his use of exclamation marks and his inspired tone, which is evident when he repeats that he ‘never’ saw such a thing.
London is portrayed as romantic and awe–inspiring; in fact Wordsworth paints a very pastoral scene. The city is ‘open unto the fields, and to the sky’, it seems so free and airy, not suffocating and restrictive like Blake’s London. The buildings - ‘ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples’- portray a very cultured, prosperous, and powerful civilization – strong, technologically advanced, and creative; because they cultivate the arts, navigate the world, and can create feats of architecture. The city, too, although manmade, is at one with nature, collaborating perfectly with the sun to create a scene ‘more fair’ than any other landscape the Earth has to offer. Wordsworth is exaggerating – but only to ensure that the reader knows how awe-inspiring the sight is, how effectively it touches his heart and arouses such a mixture of emotions.
. What Wordsworth seems to be conveying the most in his sonnet, however, is the life of the city. He uses anthropomorphosis to do this - ‘The river glideth at his own sweet will’ – even the river has life, and is happy and contented, just like the rest of London, gliding along gracefully. The city even has a ‘mighty heart’, proving even more that the city is alive and in motion, a constantly beating paradise. Conversely, Blake’s London is hellish and soulless. The people are stifled, the city is black, and there is no hope for the future, just an endless torment. It is foreboding, almost apocalyptic.
That fine, refreshing, morning, perched upon the bridge, Wordsworth did not want to see the ugliness of human activity. Overwhelmed by the beautiful scene and the perfect contentment he felt – all he wanted to do was record it. Blake, on the other hand, was frustrated and angry with the state of society. He was purposely walking the streets, so that he could see and propound all the wrongdoing that he saw. Both poets are verging on extremes – one is an optimist, the other a pessimist. While these two poems are vastly different, one famous proverb rings true; Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
