Victorian London was still in the throes of the Industrial Age, just beginning to address the problems brought about by a sudden shift in the firmament, during the Romantic period. Everything that had previously existed as the foundations of living had shifted in the past 50 years. Economics shifted from an agrarian, land-based economy to one of business and commerce; socially ingrained concepts of class and position were eroding, allowing commoners to quickly escalate to the wealth and power of the elite and the elite to fall to the poverty and disgrace of the peasant; religious ideals were in turmoil as the Catholics and the Protestants continued their fight; and lifestyles were fundamentally changed as more and more people found themselves imprisoned within the walls of the ugly, dirty and polluted city thanks to poor working conditions and lack of adequate education.
While some considered the changes to be positive signs of a prosperous and growing England, with an exciting increase in worldly importance, others viewed the bustling city in a much more negative light, in which individuals became lost members of a crowd and social ills became much more apparent (Kreis, 2006). The period could not help but be obsessed with these ideas of all-inclusive change and the literature produced during the period was necessarily influenced by it in both its subject matter and form. In spite of the uncertainty of living in exciting yet fearful times, many writers considered it to be the best time in which to live. In the words of Wordsworth, “Bliss it was that Dawn to be Alive” (Wordsworth, 2000: 108-109). This was because of the tremendous degree to which literature could work to discover these changes as they were occurring. This combined terror and thrill can be found in works such as William Wordsworth’s Prelude and John Keats’ To One who has been too long in City Pent.
Wordsworth’s sense of disillusion in modern society can be found in his Prelude, particularly in book seven, lines 696-741. Although the book describes Wordsworth’s experiences of Bartholomew Fair in both positive and negative terms, these lines focus more narrowly upon his impressions of the city in general from his Nature-influenced and withdrawn perspective. “Of what the mighty City is itself / To all except a Straggler here and there, / To the whole swarm of its inhabitants” (696-698) is the characterization he gives to the people he encounters. Essentially, he recognizes in them a single-image mentality animating the minds below. The concept of the single mind is highlighted further as Wordsworth describes the people as “The slaves unrespited of low pursuits / Living amid the same perpetual flow / Of trivial objects, melted and reduced / To one identity” (700-703). These people of the city seem to have no free will, as indicated by the choice of the word ‘slaves’, but they also seem to have no sense of value as they are constantly chasing after trivial things that all communicate the same common identity. This portrayal suggests beehives, anthills, and other pesky, swarming insects that do nothing to please a person’s senses or to shed light on the unique nature of the self. In this sense, the city and the people in it have become “an undistinguishable world to men” (699), further separating the concept of the individual from the hive.
However, Wordsworth seems to find a way out of this confusion of the city through the power that Nature has instilled in him. “But though the picture weary out the eye, / By nature of an unmanageable sight, / It is not wholly so to him who looks / In steadiness” (707-710). Wordsworth finds the value of the individual in standing back and taking an objective birds-eye view of the crowd. In doing so, he is able to quickly and easily discover the causes of the ills of society as being this sense of mindlessness and drone-like existence. His perspective enables him to see the individual units milling about as well as the grand design these motions create. This ability liberates him from the swarm in the same way that his contemplations of the natural world outside the city had grounded him in the past. Looking upon the city in this way, Wordsworth says, “The Spirit of Nature was upon me here; / The Soul of Beauty and enduring life / Was present as a habit, and diffused, / Through meager lines and colours, and the press / Of self-destroying, transitory things / Composure and ennobling Harmony” (734-740). While this sense of harmony was not available to the population in general, Wordsworth himself was able to find a sense of peace, beauty, and design in the motions of the city that he had previously described as being so soul-killing.
Keats also explored this topsy-turvy paradoxical existence in his poem To One who has been too long in City Pent. Keats begins the poem by addressing it to all individuals who have been stuck in the city for long periods of time and are beginning to feel trapped, “To one who has been long in city pent” (1). By doing this, he is calling attention to the idea that he may be able to offer some relief from their suffering by having them do nothing more difficult than looking up. Exhorting them to “look into the fair / And open face of heaven, – to breathe a prayer / Full in the smile of the blue firmament” (2-4), Keats directs the memory to happier times spent in the country while also reminding them of their more permanent eternal home in heaven with the use of the unusual phrase ‘blue firmament’ which typically suggests solid land. He calls forth rich images of a relaxing day spent in beautiful weather and blissful activity, “Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair, / Of wavy grass and reads a debonair / And gentle tale of love and languishment” (6-8). Not only has he presented the blue sky above, but with phrases such as “pleasant lair” and “wavy grass,” the reader instantly thinks of wild places far from the factories and businesses of the city. Describing the book as ‘debonair’ and ‘gentle’ provides the reader of the poem with a sense of subdued excitement in just the right measure to remain interesting yet not to overly tax a fatigued brain in search of a little lighthearted diversion.
Further defining the book as containing a tale of ‘love’ and ‘languishment’ provides a similar combination of being just pleasurable enough to be relaxing and just painful enough to be interesting, all without putting any undue pressure upon the mind, body or spirit and thus allowing the day to pass without any unnecessary exertions. This daytime excursion, or simple memory break from the hustle of the street, is brought back to the attention on the sky, now placed at evening time, with “an eye / Watching the sailing cloudlet’s bright career” (10-11). The concept of a ‘sailing cloudlet’ at once invokes a feeling of floating relaxation without the pressure of gravity or self-propelled motion while the use of the term ‘cloudlet’ removes any sense of impending unpleasantness, such as a storm. The poem ends with an image of “an angel’s tear / That falls through the clear ether silently” (13-14). This image brings forward the impression that the angels are crying for all those individuals who cannot see the beauty around them or enjoy the day they’ve been given and don’t realize that they are being watched over and cared for – the angel’s tears are silent and clear and, presumably, unnoticed. Thus, Keats manages to both acknowledge the overwhelming dehumanizing elements of city living at the same time that he celebrates the ability to discover more excitement in this life in one’s ability to explore the possibilities.
The combined terror and thrill of the vastly changing times of the Romantic era are strongly evident in the work of these two poets. While both poems indicate a general sense of dismay regarding the city of London at the time that the authors wrote their poems, the character of this darkness was subtly different in both the way it was experienced as well as the way in which it affected the poet. Wordsworth had only one impression of London and that of a bustling city full of nothingness and purposelessness, yet paradoxically also containing a design with a purpose of demonstrating for him the value of his uniqueness. It is only through a detached viewpoint that today’s reader is able to see the city in his work and it is only through this view that Wordsworth seems willing to identify. Keats gets more involved with the role of the individual as he illustrates how joy or despair is largely the construct of the human mind as it either submits to the masses or explores the possibilities. The thrilling ability to both make and lose a fortune simply by the hard work or irresponsible behavior of the individual was a new concept with intriguing possibilities. Particularly when complicated with the social issues of hard luck, oppressive factory practices, and limited resources. While it was a difficult time in which to live as there was no true sense of security in any major aspect of life – religion, economics, livelihood, custom, etc. – it was a time ripe with tremendous possibility for exploration and speculation.
References
Keats, John. (2003). “To One Who Has Been Too Long in City Pent.” Passions in Poetry. Ron Carnell (Ed.). Web.
Kreis, Steven. (2006). “The Origins of the Industrial Revolution in England.” The History Guide. Web.
Wordsworth, William. (2000). The Major Works Including the Prelude. Stephen Gill (Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.