Analysis of William Wordsworth's "London, 1802"

Abstract or Introduction

The sonnet "London, 1802" by William Wordsworth, first published in 1807 (Wordsworth 64), deals with the speaker's criticism of the political, religious and socioeconomic state of England at the beginning of the 19th century which is juxtaposed by an idealization of the English poet John Milton as a writer and a member of English society in the 17th century. "London 1802" is part of a group of poems that are generally referred to as Wordsworth's "Sonnets on Independence and Liberty". Like other sonnets of this group it illustrates "Wordsworth's advance from the poet of rapturous impulse to the poet of duty and fortitude" and thus, his turn towards a reflection on political and socioeconomic issues of his contemporary time in his poetry (130). In this regard Wordsworth uses form and content in "London, 1802" to express this criticism and to call for change in the English society of his time.

In terms of form, the poem can be regarded as a Petrarchan sonnet. As such, the form of "London, 1802" already establishes an intertextual reference to John Milton who also often uses the pattern of the Petrarchan sonnet in his poems like in "On his Blindness". Sarker argues that in particular Wordsworth's sonnets reflect his literary inspiration by John Milton's style as a writer. Wordsworth's sonnet contains 14 lines and is subdivided into an octave, which is consisting of two quatrains (l. 1-4; l. 5-8), and a sestet (l. 9-14). The rhyme scheme of the poem also matches the form of the Petrarchan sonnet. While the two quatrains have an embracing rhyme (a b b a; a b b a) and corresponding cadenzas (female, male, male, female; female, male, male, female) the sestet rhymes "c d d e c e" and each of the lines ends with a male cadenza. The rhymes and the cadenzas structure the poem and underline its thematic subdivision into two different sense units: a negative description of contemporary England in the first (l. 1-8) and the idealization of John Milton as a fictive potential liberator of England in the second sense unit (l. 9-14).