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Compare and contrast the three portrayals of London in Blake’sLondon, Wordsworth’s Composed Upon Westminster Bridge andJohnson’s Inglan Is A Bitch.==============================================================
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In “London”, Blake creates the image that London is a very grimplace. He describes it, as having mapped out streets, even the riverThames is not flowing along its natural route, the whole place isunnatural, and false. All Blake can see is misery everywhere. Thisis made very clear by the repetition of the word “every”:
“In every cry of every man,
In every infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.”
He uses repetition to get the message across that he sees real miseryeverywhere he looks, and in everything he hears. It gets the messageinto your mind. Also, “in every ban” is a public declaration, sayingthat everything about the place is made so that people are miserable.
Blake goes on to say how London is a very dirty place; “black’ningchurch appals” creates the image of dirt being everywhere, even onchurches, which are normally seen as places that are not left to getdirty.
Clearly, Blake does not like London, and uses imagery to show this.With use of repetition, vivid images of the dirty, and miserable placehe sees are created.
Wordsworth however, has a very different approach to London. He seesit as the finest place on Earth, and that never before has he seen aplace that really is so beautiful as London. He says that if you don’tsee London as being like this, then you have no soul, no feelings.There is a very positive approach to the poem. “The beauty of themorning” and “majesty” used to build a picture of what he sees. “Likea garment” is a simile used to make it sound alive.
Here you see a complete contrast to the way Blake sees London.Blake’s misery and dullness, now seen as happiness and beauty.Wordsworth describes the Thames as being very natural, as flowing atits own will. Blake describes it as chartered, and unnatural. Acomplete contrast. In Wordsworth’s poem, there is no dirt, just clean“smokeless” air. The buildings are alive in Wordsworth’s poem, butnot in Blake’s. It is as if the two poets, are writing about acompletely different place, even though they are writing about thesame place at around the same time, the 19th century.
However, and important factor we can take into account, is the time ofday that the poems are describing. Wordsworth’s poem is written earlyin the morning, just as the sun is rising.
