London Poetry - Notes on the Poems

William Blake – London

Blake is walking through London and comments on what he sees and hears. He sees nothing but despair and hears the sounds of repression. The Chimney sweepers cry chastises the Church which is black with both pollution and corruption and the blood of the soldier stains the palace walls (metaphorically). The night time is a terrible place with the cursing of prostitutes that corrupts the new-born baby and sullies (with stds) the marriage hearse.

• All natural features submit to being chartered (i.e. owned by others and mapped)
• Blake’s repetition of chartered and mark (first one meaning analyse and second one meaning indelible prints) emphasises the structure and rigidity of the city.
• The repetition is also restrictive and oppressive.
• Blake does not simply blame a set of institutions or a system of enslavement for the city's woes; rather, the victims help to make their own "mind-forg'd manacles," (heavy iron chains that are created by the mind) more powerful than material chains could ever be.
• The poem has more movement than the others – Blake is inviting us to travel with him.
• The dominant sense is sound – we hear all the people crying out.
• The oxymoron “marriage hearse” at the end tells us that even the next generation of Londoners are not surviving.
• All the speaker’s subjects are known through the traces they leave behind : the cries, the blood on the palace walls.
• The layout is simple and rhythmic, almost like a nursery rhyme. Makes the horrors described sound even worse.
• The cry of the chimney sweep and the sigh of solider become the soot on the church and the blood on the palace walls.
• Likewise, institutions of power--the clergy, the government--are rendered by synecdoche (i.e. the clergy are referred to as “Church” and the monarchy by “palace”)
• The city’s oppressors do not appear in the poem
• The language is blunt, not figurative (except for one metaphor)
• He is making a point about London being a prison.
• Blake’s poem is passionate and angered, full of emotion as opposed to Evans’ and Wilde’s that are dull or seek to mask the truth.
• It is about the people and Blake was a resident of London and in the streets – would he see the surroundings?


Wordsworth – On Westminster Bridge

Wordsworth is stood still on Westminster Bridge in London early in the morning. He is marvelling at how the city is ‘wearing’ the morning and is stunningly beautiful. He expresses surprise that the city is so still and quiet that it almost seems asleep.

• The poem is laid out in a sonnet with an octet and a sestet. It is an iambic pentatmeter with ten syllables a line.
• In lines 1 through 8, which together compose a single sentence, the speaker describes what he sees as he stands on Westminster Bridge looking out at the city.
• He begins by saying that there is nothing "more fair" on Earth than the sight he sees, and that anyone who could pass the spot without stopping to look has a "dull" soul.
• He is extremely emotive with words such as “touching”.
• He personifies the city by saying it wears the “beauty of the morning” and also having a “mighty heart” and everything within the scene is personified.
• It refers to visual imagery such as “bright and glittering” making it seem jewel-like.
• He was a Romantic which means his love for London contradicts his own love for nature, yet he still finds nature in London.
• Wordsworth is relaxed but passionate.
• He exclaims “Dear God” as if he doesn’t believe what he is seeing.
• It is extremely calm with words like glideth and silence.
• He is looking at London from the outside in.
• Wordsworth himself was returning home from France at the time (consider this)
• Likewise, institutions of power--the clergy, the government--are rendered by synecdoche (i.e. the clergy are referred to as “Church” and the monarchy by “palace”)
• “Mighty heart” could either be a personification of the city or the people within it – although he does refer to the people of London he says “the very houses seem asleep”.
• The octave presents the beauty of the city through Wordsworth's eye. The sestet presents the reflective mood which it evokes in Wordsworth as he admires the beauty described in the sestet.
• "The City now doth like a garment wear" The clothing imagery may be used to emphasise the temporary nature of the beauty of the city for he is admiring this beauty before the city has gotten busy and before smoke fills the air.
• Consider whether there is a contrast implied between the momentary hushed stillness of the city and its usual bustling activity implied, even though not actually stated.
• He even goes so far as to suggest that no "valley, rock, or hill" has been so beautifully lit by the early morning, which, considering Wordsworth's preference for rustic figures and nature, surprising.
• The penultimate line of the sonnet half-answers questions. The beauty of the city is that it is sleeping. There are no people just buildings.
• As opposed to the city, which is ‘lying still’, the natural parts of the landscape, the sunlight, the ‘valley, rock, or hill’ as well as the river are now active, they dominate over the sleeping city, as is emphasized by the rhyming words hill – at their will – lying still.


Wilde – Impression Du Matin

Wilde appears to be describing a scene by the Thames as it changes through the dawn. He is describing the end of the night, the rise of pollution, the waking of the people and finally the prostitute.

• It is a deceptive poem – whilst being extremely descriptive and evocative on the outset it has an ambiguous meaning continued within.
• The colourful imagery is descriptive and deceptive.
• The stanzas are simple but despite a fairly simplistic rhyme scheme, the poem makes heavy use of enjambement, altering the meanings depending on which parts are emphasised. Possibly representing London itself as it is not what it seems.
• Time passes in the poem, moving from night to day with “Thames nocturne” to the “daylight kissing”.
• The senses also change from sight to sound to sight.
• It refers to the pollution as a yellow fog which immediately puts the bridges and houses into shadow (at the time the Industrial Revolution has reached its peak and the pollution is remaining high) and only St Pauls stands out in the poem – referred to by a simile like a bubble.
• The St Pauls reference could refer to the religious building standing away from the pollution. Consider possible purity or else the use of the word ‘looming’ hinting at the power of the Church.
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• Stanzas 1 and 3 are fairly positive but stanzas 2 and 4 are fairly negative highlighting the duality of London.
• The prostitute at the end is colourless and referred to as wan which contrasts the beginning colours. Her description is a striking contrast to the colourful imagery of her surroundings. This could be a subtle point about social commentary.
• Also in the fourth stanza is the questionable use of "loitered" as opposed to the grammatically correct "loitering," possibly implying she is not loitering of her own accord, it is something society has forced upon her.
• It becomes clear that "Impression" is not a plea to the reader to appreciate nature.
• The poem at the beginning is influenced by another work by a man called Whistler but the influence is only in the first stanza.
• "Impression du Matin" is a deceiving poem, sucking the reader in with a lovely description of a river, something that most of us are familiar with, and ending surprisingly with social commentary regarding prostitution.
• There are constrasting images throughout – especially at the end with “lips of flame and a heart of stone” which could be a metaphor for London itself.


Evans - In a London Drawing Room

Evans is writing her poem in a drawing room (so a fairly nice place in London). She is describing what she is seeing from the window or what goes past the window. She sees the pollution taking over the city and the sameness of the houses beyond. She sees the effect the pollution has on the city and that due to the surroundings the people do not wish to stop and look at their surroundings and appreciate beauty because there is none. The people themselves are hurrying around, all appearing the same and London itself seems to be a prison punishing people with nothing to look at, no colour or happiness.


• She is talking about the view she sees from her window.
• Sounds miserable and depressing. Like it’s describing at oppressive place (one reader called it a regime)
• Evans main issues with London are: the oppressive pollution with no chance of the sun cutting through it; the constant sameness of the surroundings where no one can see anything new; the people who have nothing to look at and do not wish to stop and people are simply hurrying around with nothing to please them
• The last line can be interpreted as wistful – hoping for colour, warmth and joy.
• Whilst there is imagery the similes and metaphors are negative such as the “prison-house and court” reference as well at the fog being referred to as hemp.
• There is movement in the poem but it is dull and slow.
• The entire poem is in blank verse and with constant ten syllable lines throughout, although enjambement is used to make the lines run on from each other.
• Evans doesn’t appear to blame anyone for the people’s punishments.
• She is actually not “in” the poem; she is looking at London as an outsider (inside the drawing room).
• The mood is bored and uninterested, which reflects the subject matter’s feelings. This is completely contrary to Wordsworth’s view.
• No bird can make a shadow as it flies refers to the sheer amount of pollution and fog and the sun unable to get through.
• The verbs such as “cutting” sound harsh and the houses are referred to as “like solid fog”.
• “Multiplied identity” is that the people in the carriage are all the same and of one identity – individuality appears to be squashed or leeched out (consider the effect the surroundings has on removing individuality).
• Remember what was happening to Evans that made her come to and leave London.