Ralph Mctell Streets of London and William Blake London Essay

Ralph Mctell Streets of London and William Blake London

A settlement of two millennia, London has been the city of much production and phenomenon since its existence. Attracting millions of tourists each year, London is also one of the most popular destinations to travel to in the world due to its role in history and brilliant World Heritage. As one of the central most influential cities for entertainment, fashion, politics, business and arts in the World, London will host the Olympic Games for the third time in 2012. Today I will show you how two poets have contradicted the greatness of a city with the bitter truth that has been ignored and forgotten in society for centuries.

The two selected poems are connected by the hard life of the poor and unloved in the city of London. William Blake and Ralph Mctell have both written their poems from the perspective of an onlooker, showing pity for the homeless. Blakes social protest poem, London, written in 1794 invites the reader to feel disgust for the Church, which has not fulfilled its promise to protect the people of London. The relatively modern poem, Streets of London, written by Ralph Mctell in 1969 is appealing because it compares the life of the destitute with that of the typical Londoner of the time. Both give glimpses of London in which very little appears to have changed for the poor.

William Blakes poem London is a confronting and depressing analysis of the life people lived during the 18th century. The intertexuality of this poem is that William Blake was quite a religious man, and he uses the poem to express his disappointment for the Church and its unfulfilled Biblical promise to take care of children. William Blakes choice to use a simple title has in some degrees given added honesty to the poem. By calling the poem London, Blake has offered his definition or description of the city, as if to say: this is my summary of London. The poem is an untraditional 4x4 stanza narrative.

Streets of London is quite controversial in the sense that it suggests that the everyday Londoner with a comfortable lifestyle has no reason to feel miserable. The title is effective because when reference is made to the streets, the common ideology comes to mind concerning poor people without homes, children stealing and using drugs. The first paragraph creates emotion because of the imagery used to depict the poor. Ralphs words are actually quite educating. Streets of London has quite narrative lyrics, as it recounts the stories of the homeless man and woman. Willaim Blake has utilized poetic techniques to stress his points of view, such as the metaphor Mind Forged Manacles. Manacles are that of physical nature, bounding something like handcuff . Blake has made reference to these claiming that if these are forged or created by the mind, then the mind is not free. And if the human mind is not free, what is?

The intended audience of London is the Church. William Blake wanted them to know how they had failed to meet the needs of the people in England, particularly the children. The intended audience of Streets of London is the average person. Ralph Mctell traditionally wrote folk songs. Streets of London was popular with the audiences of that genre of music. However, the power of the lyrics has stretched beyond the boundaries of genre and age, because the words still apply to the status of large cities.

In both of these poems, the people the poets talk about are silenced. The reader does not get to hear the perspective from the chimney sweepers or the old man in the all night caf. Nor does the reader get to hear the opinion or response from the Church to which William Blake has directed such serious accusations. Streets of London compares everyday problems to the problems of the people living on the streets, but since everyday people are silenced; it is not known what problems are faced by them, or what their normal life really involves.

It would seem that behind every great city, there are problems that have been ignored for centuries. These two poets have chosen to write about them because they felt that people needed to be aware of the extremities of the problem. I believe both poets successfully portrayed the images and feeling of despondency of the poor for both periods of time in the city of London. They paint an unforgettable picture which strikes a feeling of sadness in the reader.