The Eiffel Tower

Superior Essays
Paris may be known worldwide today as ‘the city of lights’ and home to the unmistakable Eiffel Tower that dominates the city, but there was once a time when Paris was a medieval town, with ancient buildings and streets. Prior to the drastic actions of Georges-Eugène Haussmann to modernise the city, the river Seine was the centre of commerce. This was until his boulevards became the new highways of the city. Haussmann’s renovation of Paris took place between 1853 and 1870, and saw buildings like the Passage du Clos-Bruneau be replaced, or covered by Haussmann buildings. He planned to create and expand an array of new avenues and boulevards, and did so at the cost of medieval buildings and ancient streets. Popular buildings and parks were redesigned, …show more content…
This particular poem is in the shape of the actual Eiffel Tower that spells out the poem. The Eiffel tower is the tallest structure in Paris and has become a symbol of both Paris and of France since this nationalistic poem was published in 1918 describing the poet’s feelings about France’s war with Germany. Despite much heated debate about its construction and many objections from artists in France claiming that the tower would be ‘useless’ and that it would humiliate such wonderful monuments as the Louvre, and the Arc de Triomphe, it was constructed by 1889. The tower looms over the city and its much smaller buildings and draws attention. It is the tallest man-made structure in Paris and has the highest number of paying visitors in the world. It was constructed for the World’s Fair day that took place in Paris in the Champ de Mars. It was meant to be a temporary monument, but it became so popular that it was left untouched. The Eiffel Tower, or ‘The Iron Lady’ as it is called because of its iron components, is presented in this poem as a symbol of the strength of France before the Germans. The poem confirms what the artists who were opposed to the creation of the Tower thought to be true. The Eiffel Tower is the voice in the poem, stating that it is the tongue that ‘sa bouche o Paris tira’ and that will poke out at the Germans forever. The tower represents the vast developments made in Paris as a result of the revolution, and its advancements were only growing

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