The poem portrays a beautiful and calm city. The use of words like ‘fair’ and ‘calm’ again help to create this mood. Wordsworth suggests that someone would have to be dull if he were able to walk past the city without admiring, as he says ‘Dull would he be of a soul who could pass by’. As one reads the poem, a calm and tranquil mood is created.
A picture of glory, wealth, freedom and success is created in the poem. Wordsworth is obviously admiring the industrial revolution; therefore he uses this to convey his feelings in the poem. He is trying to give the reader a good impression of the city by describing the ‘beauty’ and ‘calmness’ of London; and in my opinion succeeds in doing so.
Wordsworth’s poem is an Italian sonnet, which means it, has fourteen lines. Sonnets are traditionally used for love poetry, and one could argue that this sonnet is describing Wordsworth’s love and respect towards London.
The poem has the rhyme scheme, abba abba cdcdcd. It also contains simple and poetic language, like ‘lie open into the fields and to the sky’ and ‘Dull would he be of soul’. The use of simple language help to get his feelings towards London over to indivituvals where as complicated language might confuse others. There are long phrases like ‘This city now doth…in the smokeless air’ and short phrases like ‘Dear God!’ Long phrases enable Wordsworth to describe London while the use of short phrases helps him to emphasise a point. The sonnet is written in first person narrative, which helps to convey Wordsworth’s feelings in the poem, because he is describing his personal views over London.
Wordsworth uses many similes and metaphors in his poem. The phrase ‘This city now doth, like a garment wear’ is obviously a simile, because the poet is suggesting that the city is like a ‘garment’. I have also noticed that this phrase is a personification, because a city could not wear a garment, therefore it is being given human qualities. Another personification that I have noticed is ‘The river glideth at his own sweet will’. The river has been personified, as if it is choosing to flow. The last line is very important to the poem, as it describes London as being the heart of the country. This is a metaphor, because it implies that London is a heart. Wordsworth is telling us that London has not woken up yet by using the words ‘lying still’. The use of metaphors and personification help the reader to understand exactly what the poet is describing.
Wordsworth was obviously in awe of London, because he is admiring everything around him. He has centred his poem on the success and beauty of the city.
William Blake’s poem, ‘London’, was written in the early nineteenth century. His poem describes the horrid and dirty scenes that are to be seen in London. The poem is more of a study of people who suffer to create London’s success; people like the ‘hapless soldier’, ‘harlot’ and the ‘new born infant’. Blake is implying that the city is ashamed of these people, as he describes the government and church as being ‘blackening’.
The poem is set in the cramped back alleys of London, which are associated with restriction and oppression. It is in the middle of the day, when the factories are alive, and the people are living their pointless lives, therefore Blake will be seeing London at the height of activity.
Blake conveys his feelings towards London, by using words like ‘woe’, ‘blood’, ‘plagues’ and ‘hapless’. These words give the reader a feeling of suffering, oppression and corruption, which help create a dark and negative mood. He condemns the government and royal family by saying ‘Runs in blood down palace walls’. This shows us that he thinks the government and royalty are useless and that they are using the poor to make London a greater city. There is a contrast between the rich and the poor here the word ‘blood’ suggesting the dying and suffering of the poor, and the word ‘palace’ suggesting the comfortable lives of the rich. William Blake mentions ‘the hapless soldiers sigh’, which also describe the terrible lives of the wounded soldiers. The soldiers’ blood is said to be running down ‘palace walls’. This tells us that the soldiers’ are fighting for the royalty and their country, despite the fact that they are being treated in a terrible way by the upper class.
The use of language helps convey Blake’s feelings towards London in the poem. Words like ‘woe’, ‘blackening’ and ‘curse’ describes the suffering and poverty in the city, and suggest no-hope and lack of power. He uses the people to portray the suffering in the city, as he says ‘every cry of every man’, ‘infant’s tear’ and ‘chimney sweeper’s cry’. This gives us a grim, dark, miserable and unhappy portrait of London.
The repetition of the word ‘marks’ and ‘every’ help to show the reader that everybody in the city is affected. There is a double meaning to the word ‘mark’; one suggesting that they are marked physically, the other suggesting that they are scared from the inside. These repetitions are emphasising universal suffering.
Blake has used antithesis while describing the ‘blackening church’. We already know that he hated the church and that he thought that they didn’t help the poor at all, and his feelings for the church are shown in the poem. The word ‘blackening’ does not come to ones mind while describing the church. Blake has used this word, to describe the visible black fumes and smog coming from the factories, and to describe his feelings towards the church, therefore it has a double meaning.
The word ‘manacles’ means handcuffs, therefore, when Blake said ‘mind-forged manacles’, he was describing how the people’s minds were controlled by the government as if they had no rights. There is a link towards the French Revolution here, because the peasants overthrew the government in France, and Blake is suggesting that the same could happen in Great Britain; therefore unlocking the ‘manacles’. The word ‘chartered’ is also used to describe how the ordinary people of London had no rights, as Blake says ‘each chartered street’. The word is used again while describing the river: ‘the chartered Thames does flow’. Blake is implying that even the River Thames needs a right to flow. There is a case of irony here, as the city and river has rights, but the people of London don’t.
Blake lived in London, therefore he would of grown up in the city, with all the poverty and diseases. Blake obviously hates London, and succeeds in giving the message across in the poem.
