Comparison of The Old Cumberland Beggar and Holy Thursday

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Comparison of The Old Cumberland Beggar and Holy Thursday

Compare Wordsworth’s ‘The Old Cumberland Beggar. A Description’ (Romantic

Writings: An Anthology, pp.78-82) with Blake’s two ‘Holy Thursday

poems (Romantic Writings: An Anthology, pp.17 and 32). How do the

three poems differ in their treatment of the theme of poverty?

The title ‘The Old Cumberland Beggar’ (hereafter TOCB) immediately

gives us the concept that the poem relates in some way to poverty.

The words ‘old’ and ‘beggar’, conjuring up an image of an old man

wandering the streets. It is written in blank verse, creating an

informal tone, as in storytelling. With 3 stanzas of differing lengths

and no rhyme scheme, it comes across as a narrative rather than a

piece of poetry. This lack of rhyme and the use of enjambements all

the way through, makes it quite difficult to read as poetry. The

rhythm is of Iambic Pentameter, which does help it flow to a certain

extent, but this is hampered by the occasional awkward syntax. In

contrast, the ‘Holy Thursday’ from Blake’s Song of Innocence,

(hereafter HTSI), written in the form of 3 quatrains, or 4-lined

stanzas, has a rhyme scheme of aabb throughout, with a rhythm similar

to that of a hymn or nursery rhyme. This rhythm and the fact that the

language is very straightforward, creates a lively and easy to read

poem. Blake’s other ‘Holy Thursday’ poem, from Songs of Experience,

(hereafter HTSE), is written in simple language and is in the form of

4 quatrains/4-lined stanzas. The first has a rhyme scheme of abab,

but the remaining 3 stanzas have no rhyme pattern to them. However,

as the rhythm is fairly constant, being of iambic metre, it is quite

an easy read, having also a good syntax.

TOCB follows...

... middle of paper ...

.... Pages 161-181.

Chapter eight: Women Poets 1780-1830 by Amanda Gilroy. Pages 183-203.

Approaching Literature. Romantic Writings: An Anthology. Edited by

W.R. Owens and Hamish Johnson. OU A210anthi 1.2

Barrett Browning, Elizabeth L.E.L.’s Last Question.

Byron, George Gordon Don Juan: Dedication, Canto I.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Biographia Literia.

Gibson Lockhart, John from the Cockney School of Poetry.

Hemans, Felicia The Grave of a poetess.

Landon, Laeticia Elizabeth Stanzas on the Death of Mrs Heman.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe A defence of Poetry.

Smith, Charlotte Sonnet XXXII, To Melancholy.

Wordsworth, Dorothy Floating Island.

Wordsworth, William Preface to Lyrical Ballads 1802.

Audio

AC12, Band 2, reading of Charlotte Smith, ‘Sonnet XXXII. To

Melancholy’.

AC12, Band 2, reading of extract from Byron, Don Juan, Canto I.

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