Lyrical Poems Essay, Research Paper

Lyrical poems on the other hand can be compared to a painting in which society is depicted, but has also been done so in a manner which serves the authors/painters point of view or their own personal agenda. The painter is not painting still life, but instead an abstract portrait of society through which the reader must filter fact from opinion. The work of art whether it be visual or written is definitely of value when examining social change, but cannot be relied upon because it comes from a biased viewpoint. We are seeing society through their eyes and not our own. Not to say that narrative poems do not contain this spin on society, but is to a much lesser degree. This can be seen by examining the lyrical poem “London, 1802″ by Wordsworth. He writes,” Milton! thou should’st be living at this hour:/England hath need of thee: she is a fen/Of stagnant waters: altar, sword,and pen” (1-3). Wordsworth allows the reader in modern day to see england as a stagnant water becoming covered with moss and slime. He implies that no worthy literary achievements are being made, that value of heroism and the symbolic knight are lost, and that the church has seen little growth. We unfortunately cannot know this to be true or false as a reader. We can compare our present society to this viewpoint, but it cannot be accurate due to the biased nature of the source.