Wordsworth
The world is changing and evolving at an astounding rate. Within the lastone hundred years, the Western community has seen advances in technologyand medicine that has improved the lifestyles and longevity of almostevery individual. Within the last two hundred years, we have seen twoWorld Wars, and countless disputes over false borders created bycolonialists, slavery, and every horrid form of human sufferingimaginable! Human lifestyles and cultures are changing every minute. Whileour grandparents and ancestors were growing-up, do you think that theyever imagined the world we live in today? What is to come is almostinconceivable to us now. In this world, the only thing we can be sure ofis that everything will change. With all of these transformationshappening, it is a wonder that a great poet may write words over onehundred years ago, that are still relevant in today's modern world. It isalso remarkable that their written words can tell us more about ourpresent, th!an they did about our past. Is it just an illusion that our world isevolving, or do these great poets have the power to see into the future?In this brief essay, I will investigate the immortal characteristics ofpoetry written between 1794 and 1919. And, I will show that t
(!Lines 9 - 12) Every potent word of these four lines inject emotions ofgrief, hopelessness, and death: the images of the child's cry, theblackning Church, and blood on Palace walls. As if lacking appreciation for thenatural gifts of God is not sin enough, we add to it the insult of pridefor our rape of His land. The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gatherednow like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune;It moves us not. Let us study his po!werful style: The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting andspending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours;We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! (Lines 1 - 4) Materialism,wasteful selfishness, prostitution! These are the images that these linesbring to me! Yet, is it not more true today than in Wordsworth's time,that we are a culture of people who simply consume and waste? The thirdline awakens me, and says that I have been raised with the mentality thatI am not a part of nature, and that I do not identify my needs with thoseof nature's needs. (Lines 1 - 4) London, a city of millions, with very few who are wealthyenough to own land. Wordsworth makes this poetic message immortalwith his powerful and emotional words. London, written in 1794, by William Blake is a poem of civilization'sdecline - and also the decline of compassion and humanit!y. This is especially true today: the United States frequentlydumps excess farm and dairy produce to keep their market price high,rather than share the excess food with the hungry people of the world. This mentality may have been quite true in 1807, but itis surely more true in 1996. In a subtle way, Blake tells us that every inch ofLondon is owned - the "charter'd streets," the "charter'd Thames. I do not know which is the greater sin: the pillage of the earth'snatural beauty, or man's torturous inhumanity toward his fellow man. " But, we listen not! For we are out of tune, and much tooimportant to ourselves, that we may not listen to the wind, rain, land orsea. How theChimney-Sweeper's cry Every blackning Church appalls, And the haplessSoldier's sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls. Along the way, we will pay close attention tothe style of the poetry, and the strength of words and symbols used tointensify the poets' revelations.
Common topics in this essay:
William Blake,
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Little Nature,
William Wordsworth,
Asia Wouldsomeone,
God Lines,
written 1794,
blood palace,
1 4,
blood palace walls,
palace walls,
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Acceptance Essays
