Paste yoDiscussion and Analysis
This chapter will be dealing with the investigation of the image of the city in William Wordsworth’ poetry and Federico Garcia Lorca’s Poet in New York, how each poet portraits the city and from which perspective each one describes the city. It will provide a discussion of the reasons behind these perspectives and descriptions of the two different cities. Then it will hold a comparison and contrast between the two collections of selected poems by exploring why each city was seen in certain way. Hopefully, the researcher will present the different perspectives and the important factors that were very influential in constructing those impressions and perspectives.
4.1 The City in Poetry
Throughout history the city has gotten the writers’ attention around the world, especially the poets’ attention. McNamara (2014) stated that ‘The history of the city in literature is as lengthy and rich as the histories of literature and cities themselves’. It can be said that the city was the focus of many poets; because it may represent hometown, background, place of living, place of birth, place where the poet wishes or dreams to go there or to live, place where was visited ..Etc. So the city is considered as one of the most inspiring things that inspire the poets to write a poem.
Although the city is the focus of many poems, but we can find that the some poets talked about certain city positively, others talked about it negatively. So that depends on the poet’s experience that he had with that city which made his impression therefore made this positive or negative perspective.
Also, it can be noticed that, in poetry, in general some cities are mentioned more than other cities. And this is due to the difference and the variance between cities in the world; in other words, there are cities are large and big, other cities are old and ancient, others are famous and prominent, and others are developed and center for many people around the world. On the other side, there are modest and small cities which are not well-known as much as those previous cities and don’t have some of those features. So these are the reasons behind that some cities are more inspiring for writing poems and can attract more poets. Some of these cities that are considered as the focus of many poets around the world and will be discussed in this chapter are the city of fog, London, and the city that never sleeps, New York.
4.2 London in William Wordsworth’s Poetry
4.2.1 Lines Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Sept.3, 1802
‘Lines Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ is one of the most famous poems for William Wordsworth. As what the Wordsworth Poetry Library (1994) claimed, ‘The sonnet is probably the best known’. This poem is included in the series of ‘Miscellaneous Sonnets’ which is closed with an homage to William Wordsworth’s friend and benefactor, the long-deceased Raisley Calvert (Robinson, 2010).
In this poem, the poet is inspired by the beauty of London in the morning; from the first reading of the poem, we can feel how Wordsworth is touched, fascinated and totally attracted by the charming seen of this large and great city. Especially that London is the capital and one of the largest cities in that days; so those moments on that morning were very unique and special because they show the real image and the real seen of it.
The poem mainly presents a description and a portrayal of London city on the morning. The poet used simple language and familiar words. So it can be read and understood easily by the ordinary reader especially if he was an Englishman. The general atmosphere of this poem can described as joyful, optimistic, relaxed, and amused. The poet starts the poem by saying ‘Earth has not anything to show more fair:’; this conveys that this moment for the poet is very unique and the exaggeration here shows how the scene is comfortable for his eye; so there is happiness and rest while reading such poem. The speaker wonders how any person can pass this spot without being touched; and if there was person can, the poet described this person’s soul as ‘dull’. Wordsworth portrays ‘the beauty of the morning’ as clothes or dress that London wears. Then he starts mentioning all the details that prettify this ‘garment’; ‘silent, bare,’, ‘Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples’. In verse 7 and 8, the city seems to have clear sky and no pollution. To this point the first single sentence is ended. The writer carries on describing the scene of the city. He describes the beauty of the sun and conveys the affect that he feels while looking to this charming scene; by telling that he has never seen such glamorous sunshine before, or felt this very deep calm (Br Uer, 2010). In the end of the poem ‘Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;’, ‘And all that mighty heart is lying still!’, the poet likes these current moments when people ‘houses’ are asleep; but the heart of the city ‘London’ or the heart of England ‘the name of Britain at that time’ stills. And because of that London at that era was the largest and greatest city in the world; so Wordsworth might means by ‘mighty heart’ the heart of the whole world.
Obviously, Wordsworth likes London in its calmness and prettiness without hustle and bustle. And this is not an unusual thing for Wordsworth especially that we know that he grew up in the Lake District where the peace and calmness are.
As a Romantic poet, it is surprising that Wordsworth is inspired by a city not nature, and sees this city with full of surprise. In addition to mention human-made things such as ‘Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples’. Although Wordsworth, the Romantic poet, describes a city, but this city in those moments is not in conflict with the nature. And that is clear (in v.7), when the poet starts seeing and describing the natural things which were there in that spot. Wordsworth goes on glorying what his eye sees on Westminster Bridge; he is amazed by the scene of the sunrise by telling that the sun has never shone beautifully like this before even on the natural things. Then the post continues describing and portraying all elements that composing and constructing that perfect portrait by personifying and giving life to them including ‘the river’, ‘the houses’, and the whole city when he gives it a symbolic heart which never sleeps. As Gilmartin and Chandler (2005) stated that ‘The comparative gesture at the start of the sestet makes patent the sense that Wordsworth represents the metropolis in the terms of landscape: ‘never did sun more beautifully steep / in his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill.’ One might say that the poem demonstrate how early (to stay with Benjamin’s terms) the old Romantic sentiment of landscape that he did so much to establish in poems as recent as ‘Tintern Abbey’ gave away to ‘a new Romantic sentiment of cityscape.’ The allusive richness of the figure of an ‘eidometropolis’ ought, in fact, to prompt us to reconsider this notion of the one stage (country) sequentially giving way to the other (city)’ (p.12).
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