Another poem which has similar value and importance to modern society as ‘Waltzing Matilda’ is ‘London’, written by William Blake and set in the slums of London in 1794 (about 100 years before ‘Waltzing Matilda’ was written and 6 years after the First Fleet arrived in Australia).
William Blake lived from 1757 to 1827 and spent his entire life living in Britain. Blake published his poem ‘London’ in the Romantic Era of poetry when violence and rebellion was in high occurrence all throughout Europe. Blake along with other British citizens and early Romantic poets were in support of the French revolution. This was a time in history were people in all parts of the ‘New World’ including the British were fighting for their national identities.
He depicts London to be dirty, disorderly, government ruled, sad and confronting filled with powerless and entrapped people in turmoil. There is reference to, sadness is every face on the street, children being forced down chimneys by the church, blood running down Palace walls, prostitution, dysfunction of motherhood and the fairly rapidly failing state of the society before the revolution. This was the decaying, pre-revolutionary identity of the British people. ‘London’ the poem so effectively transports contemporary readers into the moment through the use of endless poetic devices. It’s like the reader is walking in the footsteps of the character, living their life and feeling what they’re feeling; these people were fighting so hard for their identity and for their rights.
‘London’ is made up of 4 stanzas with 4 lines. Blake uses rhythm in the poem to create feelings of uncomfortableness, sadness and empathy to resonate with the contemporary reader. All of the lines in the poem have a consistent metric rhythm and use the rhyme scheme (abab) for each
Line 3 of stanza 3 in the poem reads;
“…And the hapless Soldier’s sigh…”
Both the alliteration of the letter s in Soldier’s sigh, and consonance at the end of the words ‘hapless Soldier’s’ are another example of Blake using literary devices. Just as Banjo Paterson does in ‘Waltzing Matilda’, William Blake places these subtle devices throughout his work creating harmony and attention to language.
Blake was among some of the best known poets of the Romantic era including William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, Samuel T. Coleridge, John Keats and Lord Byron. All of these poets wrote something about the decreasing Anglican community, rise in religious and political conflict and the industrial revolution of Britain. All of these topics are crucial to the history of the modern British society and their development of identity throughout the centuries. Blake in his poem ‘London’ successfully manages to preserve historical characteristics of emotional and physical life in London, including what language was used in that era.
Without poetry we have no way of preserving, in lyrical tone, a history that can reach and connect with the
This particular poem was written in 1793, shortly after Blake and his wife moved out of London to a house in an area known as Lambeth Marsh on the Thames River. This new home was surrounded by a large garden and rested in a relatively new development known as Hercules Buildings. Blake and his wife had relocated to Lambeth possibly because of its rural appearance, and Blake considered it to be his own Garden of Eden (Ackroyd 128). In “The Garden of Lo...
With each step, he yearned for the concrete world to dissolve. Every man who passed wore a mask of disdain, mirroring Blake’s own, while resentful eyes trailed along the cobbled pathways, searching for answers to the unanswerable. The alleyways of London, once brimming with character, forlornly watched the people who no longer had any desire to stand still. Instead, the ceaselessness of noise mirrored the ceaselessness of life and, as Blake stood, the seed which once had flourished within his being seemed to wither away, while his sprit wrestled and writhed, yearning for liberation from the concrete cell of London. The Thames flowed beneath him, almost mocking the finite world through its infinite liberation. A young boy stood nearby, gazing towards him with an eerie blankness in his eyes, and yet the two eyes, black as i...
William Blake was a famous English poet, who lived during the Romantic Age. Blake was unrecognized and unappreciated during his life, however, now he is considered one of the greatest poets of his age. William Blake was born on November 28, 1757. Growing up in London, his parents soon realized that he was no ordinary child. He was homeschooled and then later sent to drawing school. Later in his life, he created famous poems including A Poison Tree, London, and The Tyger. William Blake’s quiet and unrecognized life inspired by the bible greatly affected his many writings and paintings he made during his lifetime.
He so eloquently mentions the ‘mark in every face’ connoting the similarities of those individuals around him, followed by ‘marks of weakness...woe’ portraying the depressing situation the character is surrounded with (the people around him are deeply scarred by the despair). Blake purposely uses imagery to clearly justify the feelings of the civilians around him which mirrors his own dismay, again the cold harsh reality around him. Blake takes the reader on a sensuous journey that describes the dangers of what the plutocracy has created, how it seeps through the people around him. He constantly repeats the term ‘I hear’ to emphasise the repetitiveness that surrounds him and how he is tired of it all. Overall this poem explains the poison that has befallen on him and those around him. Furthermore, this poem portrays his sickness of the streets of London and the sickness of
William Blake, was born in 1757 and died in 1827, created the poems “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” and Proverbs of Hell. Blake grew up in a poor environment. He studied to become an Engraver and a professional artist. His engraving took part in the Romanticism era. The Romanticism is a movement that developed during the 18th and early 19th century as a reaction against the Restoration and Enlightenment periods focuses on logic and reason. Blake’s poetry would focus on imagination. When Blake created his work, it gained very little attention. Blake’s artistic and poetic vision consists 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 animals and man.
In "London", William Blake brings to light a city overrun by poverty and hardship. Blake discards the common, glorifying view of London and replaces it with his idea of truth. London is nothing more but a city strapped by harsh economic times where Royalty and other venues of power have allowed morality and goodness to deteriorate so that suffering and poverty are all that exist. It is with the use of three distinct metaphors; "mind-forg'd manacles", "blackning Church", and "Marriage hearse", that Blake conveys the idea of a city that suffers from physical and psychological imprisonment, social oppression, and an unraveling moral society.
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.
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.
Although written prior to what became know as Marxism, William Blake’s poem London exhibits many of the qualities favored by Marxism. The poem, in its sixteen lines, centers on both the political background and the social background of London. Keeping with Marxist beliefs, it exemplifies the differences between the upper class citizens and the poverty stricken lower class. He also attacks the Church and the Palace for contributing to the plights of those on the lowest spectrum of society. Blake starts his poem with
Historic poetry is unique in the respect that it gives readers an insight into a certain historic time period that textbooks cannot provide. Historic poetry not only gives a description of the time period but it allows the readers to connect to the emotions of the poet and to a point experience what it would have felt to live in that era. This is the case with William Blake’s poem London. London not only describes the horrid condition of England’s lower class during the industrial revolution but it also connects this description with a strong emotion response from the speaker. Blake’s stylistic and structure choices through out the poem paint a dark and morbid view of London but the emotion of the poem remains divide. The words of the poem’s speaker evokes both sympathy for the lower classes at the same time as he is chastising the people who have the power to change the situation.
The poems ‘lines composed on Westminster Bridge’ and ‘London’ are created by William Wordsworth and William Blake respectively. Wordsworth’s work originated in the eighteenth century and he himself lived in the countryside, and rarely visited large cities such as London. This is reflected on his poem, making it personal to his experience in London, however William Blake on the other hand had a vast knowledge of London and was actually a London poet, which allowed him to express his views of London from a Londoner’s point of view. I therefore will be examining comparisons in both poems, as well as their contrasting views of London and the poetic devices used to express their opinions.
These two poems are both written about London, one titled 'London' is written by William Blake. The other 'Composed up Westminster Bridge' is written by William Wordsworth. Even though these poems are written on the same setting, they are opposite sides of a coin. 'London' shows the appearance of the city from the position of an onlooker, it shows the suffering of the common man. 'Westminster Bridge' tackles a different view point, it portrays London as the city really is. The rich upper classes sit on the high seats lining their pockets with the riches that the poverty stricken lower classes have made for them. All the time these people shield themselves against the poverty of the city.
?London? is a poem of serious social satire directed against social institutions. According to Blake author Michael Phillips ?it is a poem whose moral realism is so severe that it is raised to the intensity of apocalyptic vision.? Blake becomes more specific in his descriptions of the prevalent evil and moral decay of society as the poem progresses. Blake?s informative nature is clearly evident in ?London? as he ?points the finger? and exposes powerful institutions.
William Blake uses repetition, rhyming and imagery in his poem to help promote the idea that London, England is not the city that people dream that it is, the city itself can be a
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