Poetry was an foreigner to the cold. efficient. passionless environment of the Industrial Revolution. Romantics of all humanistic disciplines criticized the altering ways of life and idealized the pre-industrial revolution epoch. London was the oasis to this revolution. and the snake pit to all poesy. William Wordsworth and William Blake both denounced London’s new environment with their verse forms “London. 1802” and “London” severally. Both writers were against this transmutation of the metropolis because it destroyed all beauty and felicity. both of which they were really affectionate of. But. their Hagiographas went about different ways of demoing their feelings of dissent towards the mechanical life style of London. In both verse forms. Blake and Wordsworth shared the thought that London was corrupted through the ‘progress’ brought on by modernisation and more specifically. the industrial revolution. Although their thoughts are similar. their agencies of conveying their thoughts are non. Blake portrays his hate of the state of affairs of London by looking at the black modern times. while Wordsworth did so by looking to the yesteryear and how it was superior to the present. Besides. Wordsworth’s usage of a more ocular representation of the London lifestyle contrasts with Blake’s more audile descriptions. Both of these writers had different manners. but one thing was certain in their Hagiographas. London was a ugly topographic point.
London’s status in the early nineteenth century was no better than that of an destitute land. The Industrial Revolution swept England by storm. and the upper categories were harvesting the benefits while the lower categories suffered. London. it appeared. had lost all its values. ethical motives. and emotion to the coldness of mill life and the selfishness of greed. Basically. London had been corrupted by capitalist economy. modernisation. and the industrial revolution. Wordsworth depicts this loss of artlessness really clearly in his verse form. He uses mention to past beauty and felicity to convey the message of corruptness in the modern period. London 1802 contains many of these mentions such as his line in the verse form that tells of the pure and happy England and how it was rejected by modern times. “The epic wealth of hall and arbor have forfeited their ancient English dowry of inward felicity. We are selfish men” ( fifty 5-6 ) The present London had given up its illustriousness to a cold machine that took over all verve of life that had existed in old yearss of glorification. The new London non merely lost its artlessness. but it lost its felicity.
Peoples of London were suffering during this clip. The working category was being exploited by the higher categories and people poured in from all over Europe seeking chance. This created a cesspit of hapless. urban category people who were suffering with their on the job conditions. Blake besides saw this sorrow throughout the streets. and painted a image of it with his line. “And grade in every face I meet ; Markss of failing. Markss of woe” ( fifty 3-4 ) Blake’s usage of repeat of the word marks adds play to the melancholy verse form. He shows that everybody in London is suffering. making an aura of heartache. His portraiture of this dejected population merely furthers the position that London is a barren. and her people were its garbage.
Although the verse forms both convey a message of unhappiness for their darling London. the writers go in two really different waies to make so. Wordsworth speaks of a past London. in which everything was better. Its citizens were populating in better conditions. there were no mills to convey pollution. and there was no atmosphere noise from the nonstop machinery. By talking of this merrier yesteryear. his verse form seems lighter and happier since he speaks of more cheerful times. By non stating of the dark images conveyed during the present London. Wordsworth does non paint a image of unhappiness in the viewer’s head. Wordsworth uses John Milton as a metaphor to stand for the old joyful London. Throughout his verse form. Wordsworth regards Milton to praise the pre-Revolutionary London. Wordworth describes Milton as a adult male of. “cheerful godliness” ( fifty 13 ) . A adult male of felicity who revered God. This was besides Wordsworth’s thought of the former London. where its people were happy with their lives and their occupations. and they followed the word of God.
He perceived this London as a pure undefiled land. This is the complete antonym of the modern London he lived in now where people were suffering and did non idolize the instructions of pureness or God. Blake’s poem contrasts greatly with the more cheerful temper of Wordsworth. Blake’s point of position in his verse form is the sorrow encountered in modern twenty-four hours London which is the polar antonym of that of Wordsworth. Blake looks towards the present state of affairs of heartache. and his verse forms reflect that sentiment. The desperation grows evident when he talks of the loss of artlessness in London. He speaks of the “Youthful Harlot’s curse” ( fifty 14 ) perverting the “new born Infant’s tear” ( fifty 15 ) . The feeling he depicts is one of depression. It shows how there is no felicity in London and the hereafter is being destroyed. He describes the toll of the slum like on humanity. which is neither happy nor gives any hope for the hereafter. The verse form is much darker and it is evident when compared to the more free-spirited verse form of William Wordsworth.
Another tremendous difference that distinguishes the writers is their different ways to hold on the reader’s attending and emotion. Both Blake and Wordsworth use heavy imagination. but they describe this imagination utilizing different senses. Blake’s verse form fills the readers ears with the calls of many. while Wordsworth pigments a image utilizing ocular descriptions. Wordsworth’s more ocular verse form helps to convey the image of felicity of the yearss before. The reader can see the cheerful artlessness of the old London and visualize its contrast with the industrial ravaged modern London. He does this best in the beginning of the verse form when he is depicting London to Milton. “England hath demand of thee: she is a fen of dead waters” ( fifty 2-3 ) . Wordsworth literally describes England as a swamp of still unmoving Waterss. His sophisticated appreciation of the English linguistic communication portrays an image of a land decomposing off. which is meant to be the mind. bravery. and pureness of the people. Wordsworth explains the debasement of human spirit with his metaphor of an idle cesspit. his thought of the citizens of London. This image provides us with a disturbed feeling. but nil more.
There is no fright or panic portrayed as Blake does. Blake’s usage of hearing merely makes one feel blind to the milieus. which creates a feeling of darkness and desperation. This makes the reader genuinely feel like a citizen of London ; blind to life. confused. and scared. His verse form uses this feeling of darkness to its full consequence and has his readers feel foring the dark London atmosphere. They know what a citizen of the rough London life feels and through this. are able to show a true sentiment of empathy for these hapless people. His aural somberness becomes most evident when he is talking of the calls of the people on lines five through eight. “In every call of every Man. In every Infant’s call of fright. In every voice. in every prohibition. The mind-forg’d handcuffs I hear. ” Blake’s audile description is grief to get down with. but in his usage of this ‘blind description’ he leaves the reader to utilize their imaginativeness to visualize the metropolis. The usage of a reader’s imaginativeness helps to convey an image that composing can non make. Give voice can ne’er to the full depict the sadness in modern London. but one’s head has no such bounds. Blake is a literary mastermind in being able to utilize this consequence to his advantage to make an utterly rueful feeling compared to Wordsworth’s more conventional attack to imagery.
The Industrial Revolution was an of import measure in the modernisation of the universe. and London was the centre of it. To be a leader in such a unsafe measure frontward. there were forfeits and errors to be made. These forfeits and errors led to an terminal of artlessness for the expansive metropolis. Peoples were worked indefatigably. with no respect for their ain public assistance. A province of competition was established with this new capitalist reform of the metropolis. and people left their ethical motives behind to be portion of it. To romantic creative persons of all kinds. this terminal of artlessness was a decease of civilization and life. They emphasized on the more glorious era. where people were trusted and loved. Blake and Wordsworth show this decease with their profound words and their sorrowful word pictures of the loss of felicity in London. Their differences in composing manners merely farther the image of London in its dejected province and the loss of corruptness brought on by the inevitable force of modernisation. Blake and Wordsworth were both soldiers armed with their pens in the March against the dictatorship of corruptness.
