In Dryden's poem "London After the Great Fire, 1666"
Dryden personifies the burnt city explaining the processes by which "she" must do
so.
Personification is the giving of non-human/ non-living
things characteristics and attribues commonly held by mankind alone. For example, "the
wind sings" is an example of personification given that the wind (a non-human/non-living
object) is described as singing (something humans have the ability to
do).
In regards to the poem, Dryden describes the city of
London as"laboring with a mighty fate", "she shakes the rubbish from her mounting brow",
and "she from her fire does rise."
This speaks to the
human-like powers that the city of London possesses so that she can insure her survival
and rebirth.
At the end of the poem, Dryden
states:
The
venturous merchant who designed more far/ And touches on our hospitable shore,/ Charmed
with the splendor of this northern star,/ Shall here unlade him and depart no
more.
This states the fact
that Dryden knows that London offers people something no other city can. Once the
merchant "unlades" (unloads) his cargo, he will choose to stay in London given her
ability to overcome all else. The merchant, therefore, sees London as possessing the
attributes one would align with the ability to succeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment