Although Wordsworth and Dunbar appear to call on their deceased elders, Milton and Douglass respectively, to solve their different woes with society, they instead seek refuge in a plea for living person to solve their modern problems using old wisdom.
The speakers in both poems differ in regards to the reason behind their motivation to call their late role models. In the poem “London, 1802,” William Wordsworth agonizes over the idea that morals and creativity in England have deteriorated. Wordsworth, in the opening lines of his sonnet, uses the metaphor by comparing England to a “fen” to convey that the country remains in a marshy ditch, unable to move forward and progress. He continues by stating the symbol “altar, sword, and pen” which represents …show more content…
Both poems allude to different people, “London, 1802” alluding to John Milton and “Douglass” alluding Fredrick Douglass. It appears that these poems are trying to call for help from their deceased role models, but instead the poems try to highlight the aspects of their role models that a person needs to lead the revolution. Wordsworth uses the simile “thy soul was like a star” to show how one must stray away from the ideas of others and to be unique, since the like the universe the capacity of our minds is limitless. He continues with another simile of “whose sound was like the sea” shows that Milton’s voice was irregular, but powerful like the sea. The speaker ends the string of similes by saying that Milton was “pure as the heavens” describing Milton as god-like, meaning that Milton possessed a unique, benevolent power over the others. However, he did what his heart wanted, and not just following the path of others. Likewise, Dunbar states that Douglass’s voice was “highsounding o’er the storm” to show its power and imposingness. He continues by saying that “his strong arm to guide the shivering back” the metaphor of the shivering bark representing the Africans American struggling through the fight against inequality. The last metaphor ending this Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet of “lonely dark” signifies the
The speakers in both poems differ in regards to the reason behind their motivation to call their late role models. In the poem “London, 1802,” William Wordsworth agonizes over the idea that morals and creativity in England have deteriorated. Wordsworth, in the opening lines of his sonnet, uses the metaphor by comparing England to a “fen” to convey that the country remains in a marshy ditch, unable to move forward and progress. He continues by stating the symbol “altar, sword, and pen” which represents …show more content…
Both poems allude to different people, “London, 1802” alluding to John Milton and “Douglass” alluding Fredrick Douglass. It appears that these poems are trying to call for help from their deceased role models, but instead the poems try to highlight the aspects of their role models that a person needs to lead the revolution. Wordsworth uses the simile “thy soul was like a star” to show how one must stray away from the ideas of others and to be unique, since the like the universe the capacity of our minds is limitless. He continues with another simile of “whose sound was like the sea” shows that Milton’s voice was irregular, but powerful like the sea. The speaker ends the string of similes by saying that Milton was “pure as the heavens” describing Milton as god-like, meaning that Milton possessed a unique, benevolent power over the others. However, he did what his heart wanted, and not just following the path of others. Likewise, Dunbar states that Douglass’s voice was “highsounding o’er the storm” to show its power and imposingness. He continues by saying that “his strong arm to guide the shivering back” the metaphor of the shivering bark representing the Africans American struggling through the fight against inequality. The last metaphor ending this Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet of “lonely dark” signifies the