Research Paper on "Compare and Contrast the Two Poems"

Research Paper 5 pages (1635 words) Sources: 2

[EXCERPT] . . . .

London's Summer Morning" by Mary Robinson and "London" by William Blake compared and contrasted.

Language and structure in poetry

The industrial revolution came with urbanization and there was an increase in population in London. Through this time there were various poets who were inspired to write about London, some of these poets are William Blake and Mary Robinson.

The industrial revolution acted as an inspiration to great poets who used great poems that were socially-based to portray their disenchantment with the changes that came with the industrial revolution.

The poem 'London' by William Blake is basically about a person wondering in London as making a description of what he is thinking and observing. Among the things the persona notices is poverty, despair on the faces of people, their misery and he also takes a note of the hideous state of London as well as its corrupt nature and injustices everywhere. The poem London's summer written by Mary Robinson shows how the streets of London is full of hustle and bustle and is a congested metropolis. The poem is filled with noisy commerce and the audience is captivated through the depiction of the city in the sublimity that it exists in. The audience is also engaged with the unrelenting street sounds and noises. It talks of how workers are busy in the streets of London. It also talks of new gadgets that are available for trading and also depicts that contrary to what most people believe, London is not a place of opportunity but it is a busy place where the workers are working very hard so as to earn their living. These two poems are similar and different in various ways. This paper will therefore analyze the similarities and differences between the two poems. The comparison will be made on the basis of various aspects of the poems which include form & structure, themes, imagery and language.

In terms of form and structure, the poem 'London' by William Blake is made up of a total of sixteen lines that are divided into four quatrains which is in an iambic tetrameter. A rhyming pattern of ABAB is found throughout the poem. In the first quatrain the poet describes his walk on the transitory streets. In the second quatrain there is a reflection of materialisms in the words used. In the third quatrain there is a comparison of two representations that is being made.

Finally in the fourth quatrain the poet talks of what the persona hears while walking in the streets in a metaphorical way. This therefore shows that in the different quatrains different things are being portrayed. In contrast in the poem London's Summer Morning by Mary Robinson is a blank verse poem that is written in prose from. The poem is made up of a total of forty two lines but they are no distinctions between the lines in form of quatrains like the other poem.

Thematically, there are various of them portrayed by the poets. Suffering is one theme that is similar in both poems, in the poem London the suffering and pain in humans is seen throughout the poem and is portrayed as visible in the streets. In the poem 'London's summer morning' there is depiction of different social classes with the power class being depicted to be working hard so as to earn a living. Industrialization here is seen to have come with the human suffering disguised as the urge to work hard so as to improve their livelihood. Both poems show that instead of bringing the good that was expected industrialization ended up frustrating the citizens of London (Robinson, 2013).

The Effects of Industrialization is another theme that runs through both poems, in the poem 'London' Blake describes the effects that came with industrial revolution and at the same time the breaking of the ties that existed between the common man and the land. He goes ahead to describe the rivers and streets as charted meaning that they are controlled by people who are interested with money. On the other hand the poem 'London's Summer Morning', the poet talks of effects of industrialization such as congestion in London. People are seen to be coming to London in an attempt to better themselves and hence they end up filling the streets of London and continue to suffer there. In both poems the poets are trying to dispel the thoughts of glory and glamour that had been associated with London previously (Margaret Ferguson, 2005 ). Both poems have the theme of a social class of the people in London, both poems depict the difference in wealth of the citizens that are divided into visible classes.

Imagery does not only involve a figure of speech or the physical senses literally but it involves descriptive words and some phrases that try to evoke the mental picture of scenery in the book or poetry. Others define imagery to be the formation of the mental images, or figures of things collectively to be a dim imagery. In "London's Summer Morning," the poetic and the prose output conjures a variety of images of culturally thriving urban settings, such as London and Robinson's native Bristol. However in "London" by William Blake, it is almost impossible to spot the images are used in the poem, but sometimes almost impossible of understanding what those images mean. For example it becomes impossible to understand the words "I wander through each chartered street, / Near where the chartered Thames does flow," found in the first and the second lines. This style signified the arrogance of men that is shown in futile attempt of making the rivers to obey the laws.

In the poem "London" by William Blake, there are images used such as "The mind-forg'd manacles," this refers to the attitude that takes away the freedom of the peoples' thoughts and actions.

The term harlot used in the poem is a Biblical word which is much stronger than the word "Prostitute." The other imagery used is the word "Marriage hearse," this is an apparent contradiction or also known to be a figure of speech known as oxymoron. Blake also uses numerous rhymes in his poem. He feels bored "street-meet." In this case he gives the audience the general overview of London where people are so bored. There is no fun stuff so Blake keeps on using the same rhymes. He also gets the audience trapped in the rhyme after rhyme; Blake uses alliteration because he feels trapped. He hears "mind forged manacles." This is very effective because people associates manacle with prison (Blake, 2013). Blake shows the audience how London is one of the worst places, full of corruption and people have no freedom. The people are mentally trapped, making everything there to be chartered.

In every literature works, language is the main medium of literature because every language has its own distinctive peculiarities. In the poem "London," the language that Blake uses is negative. For instance, Blake uses languages with gloomy adjectives such as blackening and hapless. Blake's poem tries to tackle a very large topic of the dark and sad city by using the traditional ballad forms. He therefore creates power via careful choice of words as well as figurative language. For instance the use of words such as "chartr'd" bears two meanings; the commerce on the street and the Thames. The other example of figurative language used by Blake in his poem appears in lines 13-8 (Neil, R., 2013). Here, Blake sets the mood by giving his readers the picture of London through this time period. He gives some references to places and institutions that are associated with the city.

Repetition and double meaning of words has also been used throughout the poem by Blake; this helps in calling attention to the… READ MORE

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