Discussion Topic
The purpose and intention behind naming and writing the poem "London, 1802"
Summary:
William Wordsworth named and wrote the poem "London, 1802" to address his concerns about the moral and spiritual decline of England. By invoking the spirit of John Milton, Wordsworth intended to inspire a return to virtues such as humility, freedom, and nobility, which he felt were lost in contemporary society.
What is the intention of the poem "London, 1802"?
In the poem "London, 1802," Wordsworth is scathingly critical of the city of London and of the English in general. He says that the city is "a fen / Of stagnant waters" and that the English have become "selfish men." Wordsworth wishes that London could return to the city he believes it was in the seventeenth century, when the English poet John Milton was alive.
When Wordsworth expresses his wish that Milton "shouldst be living at this hour," he means that he would like the spirit of Milton to be alive in London in 1802. Wordsworth says that Milton was a poet of "manners, virtue, freedom, power," whose soul was "pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free." Wordsworth also says that Milton's "heart / The lowliest duties on herself did lay," meaning that Milton was a kind and generous man who put others before himself, in stark contrast...
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of course to the "selfish men" who inhabit the city of London in Wordsworth's time.
At the time Wordsworth wrote this poem, London was undergoing an industrial revolution. This revolution had a huge impact on Britain and on London especially. Cities like London were becoming heavily industrialized. The conditions of poverty were becoming more abject, in part because employers could now use machines to do the jobs that they would previously pay people to do. The air itself was becoming polluted with the fumes from the newly built factories. The complaints that Wordsworth levels against the English in this poem are likely related to the conditions consequent of this industrial revolution.
Why is the poem named "London 1802"?
I guess the simple reason why Wordsworth gave the poem this name is because he wrote it in 1802. I would say that he named it after London (even though the word is not in the poem) because that is the major city in England.
This makes sense because the basic theme of the poem is that England in 1802 is a place that has lost its soul. He thinks that the values of modern England are much worse than those that had been around back in the time of Milton, for example.
So he names the poem this as a way of saying that the poem is about modern England.
What was the poet's purpose for writing "London 1802"?
In "London, 1802," Wordsworth invokes the spirit of Milton in his savage indictment of contemporary England. At that time, England was changing rapidly, too rapidly for a lot of people, including Wordsworth himself. The country was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution, which changed every aspect of society, especially the rural society that Wordsworth knew so well. Although the Industrial Revolution brought with it great wealth, it also created enormous poverty. Wordsworth believes that the headlong pursuit of wealth is damaging the moral fiber of the country, corrupting every aspect of society:
Altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness.
People are becoming more selfish, obsessed with the trappings of material wealth. This, in turn, is corrupting our very souls. What we need is to recover some of that old English virtue, so beautifully exemplified in the life and works of John Milton. He it was who constantly enjoined his fellow-countrymen to recognize virtue as the true precondition of national greatness; he it was who recognized that the exercise of liberty, be it of the economic or political variety, was utterly worthless if men did not live up to high moral standards.
References
This poem is probably one of Wordsworth's only nationalistic poems. He seems frustrated with the way English society has fallen away from the noble virtues of just a few years ago.
He begins the poem with an exclammation and a dramatic outcry.
Milton! England has need of you.
Wordsworth feels that Milton exemplified all that was good about English society. Milton wrote Paradise Lost some time back and was considered a moral and virtuous poet. Milton's soul is as bright as a star, he stood alone above the crowd. etc.
Wordsworth was concerned with ethical morality and the natural sense of morality his poems might communicate to his readers. Wordsworth was not a sensualist as some might imagine. He sees England as a quagmire or swamp full of selfish men. We wishes Milton were here to teach "manners, virtue, freedom, power."