Comparison between William Blake and William Wordsworth’s Views of London
William Blake grew up in the slums of London and this is shown in his poem, he wrote his poem in the slums and back alleys of London as he never had very much money. He describes London as being “charter’d”, this gives us the impression that everything has rules and boundaries in London, and that there is no mystery to be discovered. Also chartered means on a map, almost as if it is owned, by the king perhaps. The line in which the word is on, “I wander through each charter’d street,
near where the charter’d Thames does flow,” makes us feel as if every thing is owned and nothing is natural, like all the people in London are prisoners of society
The ending line of stanza two tells us, “The mind-forg'd manacles I hear”, this is Blake’s way of showing to us that there are no free minds in London. Everyone had been brainwashed by society and they could not think for themselves because of that. In the next stanza Blake describes the corruption of the Church of England by mentioning, “Every black'ning Church apalls” this shows the dirtiness of the buildings and shows us that there is a possibility that he is a strong catholic. This line ties in very well with the line directly above it “How the chimney-sweeper's cry”, both of the lines are discussing how dirty and filthy London is. We could also think of these lines in a different way Blake could be telling us that the priests are corrupt and dirty rather than just physically dirty. In the final line of this stanza, Blake states. “And the hapless soldier's sigh, runs in blood down palace-walls.” This could be considered as another sign of corruption, and that monarchs are to blame for the death in London a...
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...f London, but they only do this because of their life before they wrote the poems. One poet grew up in the rich area outside London and moved there later, whereas the other poet grew up in the slums of London. They never had the chance to see London through each others eyes, if they had they may have thought differently of London. Both poets grew up and wrote about what each thought of the same place, London is a city that is magnificent and beautiful to the people who know it like that. Whereas it is filthy and dirty to the people who have grown up in those filthy dirty areas. In my opinion London is a place that is somewhere between these two extreme versions of it, a place where there is magnificent splendour but also a place where there is filth and poverty. Theses poems where written two hundred and six years ago and London has not changed that much since then.
conflicts will likely arise, it is important to remember we can learn and grow from these
The poem "London" by William Blake paints a frightening, dark picture of the eighteenth century London, a picture of war, poverty and pain. Written in the historical context of the English crusade against France in 1793, William Blake cries out with vivid analogies and images against the repressive and hypocritical English society. He accuses the government, the clergy and the crown of failing their mandate to serve people. Blake confronts the reader in an apocalyptic picture with the devastating consequences of diseasing the creative capabilities of a society.
angered him and inspired him to convey his ideas and feelings through the poem 'London'. In the poem, Blake travels through London and describes what he sees. And as a result, he sees a severely oppressed society that is caused by the authority, such as royalty, and the church. This is as Blake sees. that even the streets and the thames are 'chartered' and governed.
Blake’s poetry focuses on imagination. When Blake created his work, it gained very little attention. Blake’s artistic and poetic vision is reflected in his creations. Blake was against the Church of England because he thought the doctrines were being misused as a form of social control, it meant the people were taught to be passively obedient and accept oppression, poverty, and inequality. In Blake’s poems “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” and Proverbs of Hell, he shows that good requires evil in order to exist through imagery of animals and man.
The imagery of nature and humanity intermingling presents Blake's opinion on the inborn, innate harmony between nature and man. The persona of the poem goes on to express the `gentle streams beneath our feet' where `innocence and virtue meet'. This is where innocence dwells: synchronization with nature, not synchronization with industry where `babes are reduced to misery, fed with a cold usurous hand' as in the experienced version of `Holy Thursday'. The concept of the need for the individual's faithfulness to the laws of nature and what is natural is further reiterated in `the marriage of heaven and hell' in plate 10 where Blake states `where man is not, nature is barren'. The most elevated form of nature is human nature and when man resists and consciously negates nature, `nature' becomes `barren'. Blake goes on to say `sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires'. This harks back to `the Songs of Innocence' `A Cradle Song' where the `infants smiles are his own smiles'. The infant is free to act out its desires as it pleases. It is unbound, untainted. Blake's concern is for the pallid and repressed, subjugated future that awaits the children who must `nurse unacted desires' and emotions in this new world of industrialisation. Despairingly, this is restated again in `the mind-forg'd manacles' of `London'. The imagery of the lambs of the `Songs of Innocence' `Introduction' is developed in `the Chimney Sweeper' into the image of `Little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, that curl'd like a lamb's back, was shav'd'.
The location of the poem contributes greatly to each citizen's frame of mind because surroundings influence how people react in their environment. "London" is described as confined, creating the illusion that the citizens are trapped in their misery. "I wander thro' each charter'd street, / Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,..." During Blake's time, the word "charter'd" carried the denotative definition of restriction and confinement creating an image of a city that only allows limited movement and freedom. The repetition of the word "charter'd" emphasizes how cramped the city is. Even a river, a part of nature known to be free, is kept imprisoned and res...
Mason, Michael. Notes to William Blake: A Critical Edition of the Major Works. Ed. Michael Mason. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Blake had an uncanny ability to use his work to illustrate the unpleasant and often painful realities around him. His poetry consistently embodies an attitude of revolt against the abuse of class and power that appears guided by a unique brand of spirituality. His spiritual beliefs reached outside the boundaries of religious elites loyal to the monarchy. “He was inspired by dissident religious ideas rooted in the thinking of the most radical opponents of the monarchy during the English Civil War “(E. P. Thompson). Concern with war and the blighting effects of the industrial revolution were displayed in much of his work.
William Blake is a poet and an illustrator. He is best known for two collections of poems, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. In the two collections there are often poems that are paired together to convey one of Blake’s five recurring themes. One of the themes Blake uses is how man is born innocent and is corrupted through experience. A pair of poems that illustrates this theme is “The Echoing Green” from Songs of Innocence and “The Garden of Love” from Songs of Experience. “The Echoing Green” portrays a child who is blissful and pure. “The Garden of love” depicts the same child who is now an adult coming back to where he used play; however, he is disheartened with the sight of corruption that he did not see as a child.
The theme of authority is possibly the most important theme and the most popular theme concerning William Blake’s poetry. Blake explores authority in a variety of different ways particularly through religion, education and God. Blake was profoundly concerned with the concept of social justice. He was also profoundly a religious man. His dissenting background led him to view the power structures and legalism that surrounded religious establishments with distrust. He saw these as unwarranted controls over the freedom of the individual and contrary to the nature of a God of liberty. Figures such as the school master in the ‘schoolboy’, the parents in the ‘chimney sweeper’ poems, the guardians of the poor in the ‘Holy Thursday’, Ona’s father in ‘A Little girl lost’ and the priestly representatives of organised religion in many of the poems, are for Blake the embodiment of evil restriction.
Authors, William Wordsworth and William Blake convey different messages and themes in their poems, “The World is Too Much with Us” and “The Tyger” consecutively by using the different mechanics one needs to create poetry. Both poems are closely related since they portray different aspects of society but the message remains different. Wordsworth’s poem describes a conflict between nature and humanity, while Blake’s poem issues God’s creations of completely different creatures. In “The World is Too Much with Us,” we figure the theme to be exactly what the title suggests: Humans are so self-absorbed with other things such as materialism that there’s no time left for anything else. In “The Tyger” the theme revolves around the question of what the Creator (God) of this creature seems to be like and the nature of good vs. evil. Both poems arise with some problem or question which makes the reader attentive and think logically about the society.
... Blake’s poem differs in this way as it does not contain an iambic pentameter however, it does contain rhyming couplets, which are a very simple way to allow a poem to flow easily and make it enjoyable for the reader such as the lines. In every cry of every man. In every voice, in every ban’. To conclude, I believe that Blake presents a more real viewpoint of London from his perspective, as it is more believable than Wordsworth’s view.
because of the way they grew up. Blake was brought up in the city and
In “London” by William Blake the grunge, and domineering nature of a city engaged in a transformation of industry, is articulated through the setting. London of the poem, and the 1700s and 1800s, was griped by a sense of overwhelming entrapment in the mechanical comings and goings of industry. This massive shift is expressed through the stark nature of the setting, and the speaker’s awareness of a sense of confinement, and malaise in the face of great progress. Blake’s choices in the portrayal of industrialized London, is one aimed to express the overwhelming battle between machinery, and flesh in a city gripped by the throws of revolution.
William Blake uses repetition throughout the poem in multiple circumstances. The first time he uses repetition is in the first and second lines of the first stanza. Blake repeats the term “charter’d” to describe both the street and the Thames River. Both being described in this way makes the audience have the idea that London is a strict, governed area that may have