Pre 20th Century Essay
We have been looking at pre 20th century poetry and three different poets’ views of London. I will show how they convey ideas and images by using extended metaphors.
Daily London recipe
The poem is one large extended metaphor. The poet has written the poem in the style and tone of a recipe. For example, imperative verbs are used as though the poet is mixing ingredients. This gives structure to the poems. This also implies that the people described, don’t have minds of their own but instead ordered or pushed to doing things. The poem is a semantic field of cookery. Objects and people are used to symbolise things you would normally associate with cookery. The poem is written as though it is repetitive and will be started all over again. Although the poem has been divided into lines, punctuation has still been used at regular intervals so it still has structure to the poem instead of being one long recipe.
Some of the imperative verbs make it sound like an object is being moved instead of describing people. The use of timing is used in the poem which increases the feeling of monotony and also gives the impression that no one is allowed to be spontaneous. Timing also increases the feeling of the poem following a recipe. “Pour into empty red bus until full then push in ten more” and “tip into terraced houses, each carefully lined”. These examples create an image of a trapped atmosphere with the people. The poet, by not giving names or using he/she, implies that people have no personal identity. William Wordsworth categorises the people of London into two groups; working overalls and pinstripe suits. By doing this, the poet shows a lack of individuality between the people.