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treatment of nature in poetry
comparisons between london by william blake and composed upon westminster bridge by william wordsworth
william blake's views on religion
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Recommended: treatment of nature in poetry
Compare London by William Blake and Composed upon Westminster Bridge,
September 3rd 1802 by William Wordsworth.
As a part of my coursework for GCSE English, I will be comparing two
poems written about London in nineteenth century. The two poems I have
chosen to write about are: 'London' by William Blake and 'Composed
upon Westminster Bridge, September 3rd 1802' by William Wordsworth.
Both poems give their own, different accounts of London at around the
same period. One is written with a happy and joyous mood and the other
a completely opposite one - a dull and grim mood, which is given by
Blake.
Starting with William Blake's background as a poet, I researched that
he had a very eventful lifetime, which perhaps influenced his poems.
For example, Blake was very religious. He lived by the bible and based
some of his paintings (as Blake was also an artist) of the book of
Revelation, such as his work "The Red Dragon and the Woman of the
Sun". It is also said that he had been visited by angels at a point in
his life. Is this to prove that he was somewhat deranged or is it his
imagination? Blake's poem 'London' describes a London where everything
has rules or boundaries. We can see this where Blake tells us of the
'charter'd street' and the 'chartered Thames'. We can see the connection
of this stanza and the fact that rules were pinning every body down, with
the word chartered. Chartered means something is on the map, almost as if
it is owned, owned by the king, perhaps. Blake is communicating the
fact that there is a stamp of ownership on everything from a small
street to the constricted Thames, which being natural, makes the point
more forcefully. It affects the way people live, work and play -
people ...
... middle of paper ...
...). Not forgetting, finally the fact that there are
still prostitutes (Blake) in the city. Furthermore, London is
expanding out to the natural part of England, the rural area, where
all the fields that Wordsworth is talking about are being consumed by
the wave of concrete and tarmac of the modern city of London as we
know it today. Additionally, the smog that Blake describes in his poem
is not present anymore - of course there is the pollution from the
cars of today, so we could assume that to be a connection to Blake's
description. That is why I feel the London as we know it today fits in
with Blake's portrayal as well as Wordsworth's, but in the end, the
reason that London is such a beautiful city (in my point of view) is
because there is an effort to save some greenery in the city, to
balance the conurbation in aspects of both human and natural elements.
Flannery O'Connor’s story, "The Enduring Chill." focuses on Asbury, a young man who fancies himself as a writer but who is convinced he is going to die young. Right from the very start we have the feeling that, as in the other stories, Christ/God is present through the figure of the sun:
The Bible contains many stories of people having an encounter with angels. An encounter alludes to an unexpected meeting. The word “angel” is a transliteration from the Hebrew word “mal’ak” in the Old Testament (Strong’s H4397) and the Greek word “angelos” in the New Testament (Strong’s G32). Both words mean “messenger” and describes one who executes the plan and will of the person whom they serve.
called the New Paris, or the modern capital of Europe. The streets , buildings and the services
The setting is London in 1854, which is very different to anything we know today. Johnson’s description of this time and place makes it seem like a whole other world from the here and now....
Starting at the bank of Thames, from 54 B.C. to present day, the historical novel London, by Edward Rutherfurd, charts the two-thousand year old tale of families through ever-shifting fortunes and fates in England’s capital from the time of the Druids to the occurrence of the Blitz. The novel follows the family history of seven fictional families who interact with one another throughout the novel as a way to depict the events that have made English history for more than two millenniums. The families stem from Celtic, Anglo-Saxon,Norman, and Danish decent, creating a diverse culture within London.Furthermore, Rutherfurd intertwines the lives of these fictional families with appearances from historical
inflicted on himself. He married to a woman and they had five children, his wife left him and
Close your eyes and sit back in your recliner. Let the cool breeze refresh you as you relax in your hardwood floored den and sip your English tea. Now picture London. What kind of an image comes to mind? Perhaps the sophisticated languages of its inhabitants or just the aura of properness that encompasses typical visions of the great city of London. I am not writing to deny the eloquence of London, I am instead writing to challenge the notion of sophistication that many of us hold true to London. Could a city of such brilliance and royalty ever fester with the day to day problems that we witness daily in our own country? I argue, yes.
all the details of the city that often fly over the heads of most and recreates
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.
living we enjoy in the United States is a result of the fact that we,
While, Aidan. "Modernism vs Urban Renaissance: Negotiating Post-war Heritage in English City Centres." Urban Studies, Vol. 43, No. 13, 2006: 2399–2419.
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.
In the first poem, 'Westminster' this person is visiting London for the first time, he is not shown the reality of London but a slightly obscured view of beauty, as the light is reflecting off buildings, and giving an impression of calm, peace and tranquility. 'The beauty of the morning, silent, bare.' The reason we can guess for his delusion of the city is the fact that he is seeing it in 'the m...
The Daffodils and Upon Westminster Bridge Both " The Daffodils" and " Upon Westminster Bridge" were written around the turn of the 19th century in Georgian times to illustrate William Wordsworth's view of the Natural World. " Upon Westminster Bridge" illustrates the poet's view on the city of London. Wordsworth is able to appreciate and see the magnificence in a normal bustling city. He is in awe at the scenic beauty of the morning sun, radiating from London's great architectural marvels. To give the sense of calm he uses the adjectives silent, smokeless to underline that it is early in the morning and London is beautiful because the factories are sleeping, there is no pollution and the city is not dirty.