Rural Appreciation in the Poetry of William Blake and William Wordsworth Anonymous College

Within ‘Songs of Experience: London’ by William Blake and ‘Lines Written in Early Spring’ by William Wordsworth, both poets portray their appreciation of natural locations through their embrace of the rural aspect of life and their rejection of urbanized areas which are presented as destructive due to the industrial revolution. This is made evident within Blake’s ‘London’ where his critical viewpoint on industrialization is emphasized through his perspective as a working class citizen on the corruption of the the city as a sense of a degrading place. Following a similar Romantic perspective, Wordsworth demonstrates the sacredness of nature through his pantheistic approach which provokes a sense of the sublime, as nature was viewed as both a route and connection to God, whilst also reflecting on the atrocities of mankind and humanity. Thus, both poems both present a sense of place through the concept of nature as pleasurable and rejuvenating, by establishing a clear rejection of urbanization and corruption caused by humanity.

In ‘London’, Blake initially presents a sense of place through the dark and pessimistic tone of the poem, in which his personal observation and first hand experience of the city evokes a sense of disgust...