In a London Drawingroom

• 'In a London Drawingroom'


  'In' is misleading, poet describes urban view outside from the drawingroom, not inside it.

  'London' lacks specificity, can refer to any landscape.

  'Drawingroom' a formal room to entertain guests, this is where the poet seeks shelter from the urbanisation.
• 'The sky is cloudy, yellowed by the smoke.'


  The sky is polluted from the smoke from industrialisation.

  Introduces poem with a dreary, depressing mood.
• 'Cutting the sky with one long line of wall like solid fog: far as the eye can stretch'


  'Cutting' is a harsh verb, creates an effect where nature is blocked by the density of urbanisation.

  'long line' makes it seem overwhelming.

  Use of enjambment is supposed to keep you hooked but instead it is weary because poet piles overwhelming ideas one on top of another.
• 'Monotony of surface and form without a break to hang a guess upon'


  Tedious and repetitive, there is no mystery to appeal the poet's curiosity.
• 'No bird can make a shadow as it flies, for all is shadow, as in ways o'erhung'


  Literal: Birds cannot make shadows due to density of urbanisation

  Metaphorical: Urbanisation blocks nature

  'o'erhung' gives feelings of suffocation.
• 'Where golden rays are clothed in hemp'


  'Golden rays' refers to sunlight, it is covered by an ugly piece of fabric - symbolising the prevention of light entering the scene due to urbanisation.
• 'no figure lingering pauses to feed the hunger of the eye or rest a little on the lap of life'


  Nothing appeases the poet's curiosity.

  Soft alliterative sounds comforting and alluring yet everyone is distracted and busy.
• 'All hurry on and look upon the ground'


  Hustle and bustle of the urban life, avoidance of eye contact portrays the lack of connection between nature and mankind itself; distracted and busy.
• 'the wheels are hurrying too, cabs, carriages all closed, in multiplied identity.'


  Harsh consonance brings us back to reality after the soft alliterative.

  'Multiplied identity', everyone is distinguished by uniformity - tedious.
• 'The world seems one huge prison-house and court'


  Humanity is trapped by urbanisation and the bustle of work.
• 'Where men are punished at the slightest cost, with lowest rate of colour, warmth and joy.'


  Refers to the working class under the ruling class.

  'Cost' and 'rate' is a semantic field of economics, suggests this is what robbed them of things such as 'colour, warmth and joy'.
• Use of iambic pentameter reflects monotony of the poem.
• Use of blank verse (does not rhyme) contributes to the dull, joyless mood.