Question

How do both Wordsworth's "London, 1802" and Blake's "London" present the city?

Answer 1

Both poems represent the industrialized city as a highly immoral, degenerate place, a symbol of England's corruption. However, there are significant differences. Whereas Wordsworth juxtaposes the city's present state to its former glory, and does so in spiritual and abstract terms (selfishness vs. nobility of soul), Blake plunges deep into social matters - poverty-stricken members of the working class, the all-too-earthly suffering of chimney sweepers, harlots, children, disillusioned soldiers because of injustice within the harsh reality of the industrial age. Wordsworth is a proud Englishman who resents the country's present state, invoking a great poet of the past as a moral figure. Blake, on the other hand, is a socially aware citizen who depicts the bitter mundanity of small, common people.