In a London Drawingroom by George Eliot

• Structure


  • Free verse
  • 19 lines
  • All lines are in iambic pentameter
  • Drills the idea of monotony into the reader
  • Enjambment
  • Relentless
  • Few payses emphasise monotony
  • No rhyme scheme
  • A rhyme scheme would be expected, the fact that there isn't one suggests that something is missing - like nature
• In a London Drawingroom

  • degree of separation from the outside world
  • sense of safety inside
  • suggests the outside world is dangerous
• yellowed by the smoke


  • unnatural
  • jaundice
  • rot
  • the world is sick
  • age
  • not a new thing
  • even the sky is being damaged
• cutting the sky

  metaphor
• Like solid fog

  • simile
  • oxymoron
• The world seemes one huge prison-house and court


  • life judging people
  • punishment for destroying nature
• Monotony


  • trapped in the same rhythm every day
  • emphasised by the structure
• Industrialisation


  • link to context
  • written in 1869 - an early example of criticising industrialisation
  • no mention of nature
  • speaker seeking refuge from the pollution