William Blake ‘s verse form, “ London ” , was written in 1792 and is a description of a society in which the persons are trapped, exploited and infected. Blake starts the verse form by depicting the economic system and moves to its effects of the merchandising of people within a locked system of development. One technique that is used is the repeat of a specific word to assist stress its significance to the fullest extent. Blake uses the word “ charter ‘d ” ( 1-2 ) in the first stanza to depict the street and river of Thames. The word gives the river and street a really legalistic feel as though they are protected by Torahs and are in private owned. Blake moves on to explicate how the people have seeable “ Markss ” ( 3-4 ) of failing and suffering which are like seeable trade names of sorrow and hurt. In the 2nd stanza Blake stresses the word “ every ” ( 5-7 ) five times. This word gives us the sense of commonalty to everyone agony. It says that no 1 in London is immune to the development and disease. This thought is driven place with the words “ mind-forg ‘d handcuffs ” ( 8 ) which symbolize a society in ironss ; imprisoned by political orientation and position quo. It is possible to presume that there is no aberrance from the position quo as the stanza itself has no divergence from its rigorous iambic tetrameter metre and A-B rime strategy. The rigorous attachment to poetic metre in this stanza strongly contrast the irregular metre of the 3rd stanza.
In the 3rd stanza Blake lists out several societal places that are affected by the convulsion ; the Chimney-sweep, Church, and the Soldier. The occupation rubrics listed in the stanza are capitalized doing them pronouns and personified. The chimney-sweeper is a figure of commiseration and industrialisation because due to the of all time increasing sum of dirty chimneys melanizing the full metropolis with carbon black. The Church is “ black’ning ” ( 10 ) , its repute is going more tarnished as it is seeking to disregard or glaze over the barbarous fume burping economic system that Blake is depicting. The metaphor of the Soldier ‘s blood on the Palace Walls demonstrate non merely a mistreatment of soldiers but besides a hapless leader of the state making a confused society. Evidence of this disjointness can be found in the construction of the 3rd stanza as it no longer adheres to a rigorous iambic tetrameter metre. We see this disjointedness in poetic metre continues into the concluding stanza where Blake uses the technique of enjambement to stress the “ Harlot ‘s expletive ” ( 14 ) and “ Infant ‘s tear ” ( 15 ) . It is now dark and the vernal Harlot does non hold a opportunity to lover her babe because it is a consequence of commercialism and non love. She passes her ain wretchedness onto the kid who will probably go on go throughing it onto future coevalss. She besides passes on her disease to rip offing hubbies which lead us to the powerful phrase “ the Marriage hearse. ” ( 16 ) The matrimony hearse is an oxymoron for the impression of a happy matrimony being undermined by decease and disease and doing the matrimony to go a funeral emanation for love and freedom. Blake ‘s verse form is designed to connote that vision is needed to raise London out of desperation and off from its economic system goaded development.
Allen Ginsberg ‘s verse form “ A Supermarket in California ” is a protest verse form aimed towards postwar American society and focuses most on the consumerist facets of society and the deficiency of connexion between the modern universe and nature. “ A Supermarket in California ” is written in prose signifier and does non adhere to any kind of traditional metre or rhyme strategy doing it a shocking and upbeat verse form that is certain to stand out which is what a dissenter would desire. Ginsberg is speedy to kick off the subject of consumerism by traveling “ shopping for images ” ( 2 ) . In this instance the images are non existent as he is hankering for society to return back to the province it was in pre-war during Whitman ‘s clip. The supermarket in this line besides introduces the thought of capitalist America where fruit is mass produced to be the same and is non needfully produced in the natural state. The following few lines depict how households are now shopping at dark instead than during the daylight. It can be implied that these households are perfect atomic households and anyone who does non suit into the household construction stands out as being separate from society and considered unnatural. These persons in this verse form are Gracia Lorca, Walt Whitman, and the talker himself Allen Ginsberg all of whom are homosexual and have lost their topographic point in society. In this clip epoch, the homosexual community is ne’er spoken approximately and is non accepted by the norms of society as it may hold been in Whitman ‘s clip. Ginsberg notes Whitman as a homosexual because he is described as “ childless, lonely, old grubber ” ( 4 ) and non as a hubby. It is possible that Whitman is brought into the verse form as a manner of juxtaposing what Whitman described America to be in his poesy, and what America has become in Ginsberg ‘s poesy. The lines “ who killed the porc chops? What monetary value bananas? ” ( 5 ) pose inquiries of economic sciences. In Whitman ‘s twenty-four hours a consumer would cognize where the nutrient came from, who killed it, and how it got its monetary value. It is implied that Whitman ‘s inquiries could non be answered by the the shop employees. Ginsberg is stating that due to consumerism, we no longer cognize precisely what we are purchasing and are hence no longer connected to nature through the green goods available at a supermarket. Ginsberg besides uses Whitman ‘s tasting fling through the shop as a manner of demoing that in Whitman ‘s twenty-four hours there was no capitalist economy that forced you to ever pay for your pleasances. There is a suggestion here that paying for 1s pleasances is non natural. The line “ the doors near in an hr ” ( 8 ) shows that Ginsberg is get downing to admit that his vision of Whitman ‘s vision of the natural universe will non last as it can non stand up to the modern economic system were you can purchase everything at a monetary value. Their quest through “ lone streets ” ( 10 ) yesteryear symbols that represent “ the doomed America ” ( 11 ) , which Whitman described in his poesy, will merely take them to the absolute darkness and solitariness in the current society. Ginsberg closes the verse form by comparing “ the doomed America ” ( 11 ) to Hades. Charon was the defender of Hades who would ferry souls across the river Styx. Charon stopped short and allow Whitman out on the “ smoke bank ” ( 12 ) of Lethe. The river Lethe, harmonizing to Greed mythology, would do forgetfulness to those who drank from it. One can surmise that Ginsberg is mentioning to modern society and how it forgets its yesteryear and the difference between what is natural and what is a merchandise of worlds. This is what ties Ginsberg ‘s protest against modern America together. The Prunus persica, the porkchops, the bananas in the supermarket no longer make a relationship between the consumer and the natural universe from which the fruit originated.
Allen Ginsberg ‘s and William Blake ‘s verse forms are both illustrations poetry designed to do a statement about how society has changed for the worse and that a better alternate demands to be found. Even though these pieces were written over sixty old ages ago, we can still happen a manner to associate to them today. The thought of society losing touch with nature as it is expressed in Grinsberg ‘s verse form “ A supermarket in Califoria ” , is still a concern with today ‘s processed nutrient, indoor fruit mills, and now even larger supermarkets. Unfortunately the impact of William Blake ‘s verse form has lost rather a spot of its daze value on today ‘s society but we can still associate to the thought of mechanisation with the infringing robotic weaponries spread of incurable diseases. If we can experience the impact of the poesy now in 2011, conceive of how much impact and daze value the pieces would hold had on their audiences when they were foremost written.
