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Throughout human history, through every culture, every era, and every people, only one
thing remains constant: a yearning for the world that was, a bright past in sharp contrast to the
ever grim present. Never is this longing more poignant than when the trials of today seem
impossible, when it seems that no living person could hope to set the world to right. It is then,
when a guiding hand is needed but none is to be found, that we look back upon the heroes that
guided us in times past, celebrating their successes and bemoaning their current absence. This is
why two poets, hailing from worlds completely alien to one another and plagued by completely
different tribulations, would come to write two poems expressing this very same sentiment. Paul
Laurence Dunbar’s “Douglas” and William Wordsworth’s “London, 1802” are two poems
crafted to decry the times in which they were written, and remember with bittersweet longing the
great men of the past, whose guidance in the present is sorely missed. Their authors both use
metaphorical imagery to detail the subjects of their poems, both take the form of tender eulogies
for great men claimed by death, and both allude to both historical events and present calamities
in their pining for a better tomorrow.
The most prominent method through which both Dunbar and Wordsworth establish their
theme throughout their respective poems is the extensive use of imagery. Both authors use
imagery to capture their audiences’ attentions with captivating mental images, as well as detail
the world of their present and the heroes of their pasts via similar metaphors. Unpleasant or even
threatening imagery is used in both poems to portray the present, reinforcing both author’s
disdain for it. On the other hand each author’s chosen role model is described with imagery that
bestows upon them all of the benevolence and power of a god, further stressing the extremely
positive regard in which the authors held these men. Natural imagery, specifically the power and
danger of nature, feature prominently in both poems. Dunbar, for example, describes the
influence of racism in the United States using imagery reminiscent of violent weather such as
“The awful tide that battled to and fro” (Dunbar, 7) and “a tempest of dispraise.” (Dunbar, 8)
This imagery instills within the reader a great deal of insight about how Dunbar viewed racism,
for while tides and tempests are forces of destruction far more powerful than any man, they are
always replaced in time by tranquility. Dunbar therefore expresses both his apprehension and
optimism in a single image. Wordsworth also makes extensive use of natural imagery in his
poem, a notable example being when he described the current state of England as “a fen / Of
stagnant waters” (Wordsworth, 2-3) By likening England to an unpleasantly waterlogged mire,
Wordsworth expresses both his general disdain for the nation and offers up a more specific
critique. By likening England to a body of stagnant water, Wordsworth implies that like a fetid
bog the lack of change in England, specifically in regards to “altar, sword, and pen, / Fireside”,
(Wordsworth, 3-4) is responsible for the current rotten state of affairs in the region; Wordsworth
therefore insults England and lays out the logical basis for his critique in a single line. Imagery is
not limited to setting the scene alone, however, for the prominent men who are the subjects of
both of these poems are also described using powerful imagery. This imagery is used to praise
each poem’s figure, lending an air of mythical power to their persons. Dunbar’s eponymous
Frederick Douglas, African American abolitionist and early leader of the African American
struggle for equality, is imagined leading African Americans through the dangerous swells of
racism with his voice “high-sounding o'er the storm,” (Dunbar, 11) and directing the “shivering
bark” (Dunbar, 12) that represents his people’s fragile safety with his “strong arm” (Dunbar, 12)
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on the tiller. Dunbar, like many other African Americans at the time, felt truly at the mercy of the
forces of discrimination that abounded in Reconstruction Era United States, and so his poem
expresses a desire for leadership and “comfort through the lonely dark” (Dunbar, 14) from
Douglas and the now distant hopeful past he represented. Wordsworth too uses imagery to
describe the man who he wishes would save England from the “fen” (Wordsworth, 2) it has
become, legendary English poet John Milton. To Wordsworth, a Romantic poet who lived in a
rapidly industrializing London wherein pollution soiled the natural world and the rise of
industrial capitalism eroded the value of human existence itself, the London of Milton and the
era it lived in seemed idyllic in the extreme. Therefore, in response to the seeming decline of
England’s very soul, Wordsworth harkens back to Milton, the most emblematic figure to be
found for England’s storied cultural and literary tradition. Milton is imagined as a reflection of
everything that England no longer is but Wordsworth still wishes it was. His soul was a “Star,
and dwelt apart” (Wordsworth, 9) suggesting both the purest light of the heavens and the ethereal
unobtainability of those celestial objects. His voice, through which the products of his mind
issued, was “like the sea: / Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free” (Wordsworth, 10-11)
implying again the unstoppable power of nature but also divine mandate. Wordsworth, as a poet
in a time of great cultural upheaval, of course would have seen one of the greatest poets of
England as a role model, and therefore in what he perceives as the time of England’s greatest
need he appeals to the long dead poet through the only medium appropriate: poetry. For
according to Wordsworth, through poetry issues a divine wisdom dictated with the unstoppable
force of the tides. By using imagery to both detail the conflict behind both poems, and to
describe the majesty of the men whose example must be followed to resolve said conflicts, these
two authors illustrate with remarkable clarity just how universal poetry can be across time and
cultures.
In addition to glorifying their respective heroes with hyperbolic imagery, both Dunbar
and Wordsworth use their poems as eulogies to their respective heroes, celebrating all that they
achieved and stood for in life only to remind their readers of how sorely such things are to be
missed in the present. Dunbar, who it should be remembered was a close friend of Douglas while
he was still alive, is especially attentive to mourning his departed comrade’s death while
celebrating his life, but never loses focus on the overall theme of the poem while doing so. For
example, when Dunbar remarks “all the country heard thee with amaze,” (Dunbar, 5) he not only
celebrates Douglas’ national recognition, but also adds a new element of tragedy to the current
state of the United States. By contrasting Douglas’, and by extension all African Americans’,
moment of greatest triumph against the grim reality of their current condition Dunbar only
further underscores just how painful it was to for the African American people to have their hope
pried away from them just when they thought they had finally succeeded. Likewise, Wordsworth
begins his poem with a declaration of his grief for the long dead Milton: “thou shouldst be living
at this hour.” (Wordsworth, 1) It is important to remember, however, that Wordsworth obviously
never met Milton himself and likely did not actually harbor much actual grief towards him.
Instead, throughout his poem, what Wordsworth truly grieves for is the death of the England that
Milton represented: an England of cultural enlightenment. As previously stated, Milton uses
imagery to great effect in describing the England of his day, and sharply contrasts it to the
beautiful and powerful imagery surrounding Milton. He laments his contemporary England’s
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abandonment of “their ancient English dower / Of inward happiness,” (Wordsworth, 5-6) for in
his day smog darkened the skies of London and long hours in the factories dulled the joys of
men’s hearts. Wordsworth cries out “raise us up, return to us again,” (Wordsworth, 7) for before
his eyes England falls into dark despair, and he despairs the loss of Milton’s “cheerful
godliness,” (Wordsworth, 13) for in the England of his day and age it seemed harder and harder
to find. Though Milton died long before Wordsworth’s birth, it would seem that the English
author’s mourning of his death is no less heartfelt than that of Dunbar’s grieving for the loss of a
personal friend, this is because for both authors the most painful aspect of the death of their
respective hero is not their physical passing, but the destruction and replacement of the worlds
which they represented by a new, grim reality.
Just as each poem represents a final goodbye to a beloved man and the ideals for which
he stood, so too does each poem represent a final goodbye to the world in which those men lived.
They allude to the history that those men took part in, and the culture they were a part of and
helped shape, all to yet again deepen the tragedy that the loss of these men and the diminishment
of those traditions for which they labored. When Dunbar paints an image of Douglas triumphant
before “the eyes of that harsh long ago,” (Dunbar, 3) it is an obvious allusion to the great
injustices of American slavery and the Civil War that culminated it. By stating that the “evil
days” (Dunbar, 1) of Dunbar’s present are equal to Douglas’ experience during slavery implies
that, despite the legal abolition of slavery and other measures to assist African Americans, the
state of their people in the United States remains just as oppressed as when they wore literal
chains. He alludes also to the state of the present, for when he states that “Honour, the strong
pilot, lieth stark,” (Dunbar, 10) surely he alludes to the injustices of the Jim Crow Era, which
itself was heralded by the ‘honor’ of the black-friendly years immediately after the Civil War
waning. It is little wonder, therefore, that Dunbar pines for the leadership of Douglas when it
would appear that in order to overcome discrimination and racism it will require the equal of the
monumental efforts that Douglas helped lead that eventually lead to the elimination of slavery.
Likewise, Wordsworth alludes to numerous aspects of English history and the present state of
England to emphasize the need for people like Milton to save England from its decline. He
alludes to the diminishment of the English church, nobility, and literary tradition in only the third
line when he mentions how the “altar, sword, and pen” (Wordsworth, 3) are trapped in the fen of
England. The Industrial Revolution devastated traditional English culture: scientific discoveries
rationalized nature and weakened the clergy, military tradition and honor went by the wayside as
firearms remade battlefields into the miserable abattoirs of modern warfare, and English
literature began to lose its soul as Enlightenment writings from Continental Europe dominated.
Similarly, Wordsworth alluded to the corrosive effects of the newly industrialized economy on
English society by pleading for “manners, virtue, freedom, power,” (Wordsworth, 8) all of which
the contemporary factory and timetable dominated English society no longer afforded the
ordinary Englishman. Overall, by alluding to both the history that defined their heroes and
events of the contemporary world of the author, Dunbar and Wordsworth both heighten the
contrast between these two, only strengthening both author’s themes of looking towards the past
in times of struggle.
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To summarize how Dunbar and Wordsworth paint a tragic, yet compelling, depiction of
the collapse of the world they once knew by offering an ode to their heroes of times past:
imagery, especially of the power and majesty of nature, is used extensively to detail the
contemporary environment of the author while attaching all of the author’s wanted emotional
connotations; the writing of a eulogy to the central figure of both poem is used to highlight the
many aspects of their character, and by extension the character of their era, and generate remorse
by contrasting it to the grim lack of such character in the author’s contemporary world; and
finally, allusion to many historical and contemporary events is used by both authors to not only
heighten the audience’s perception of the tragedy depicted in each poem, but also to draw upon
the audience’s shared cultural knowledge to heighten the understanding of the author’s message.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of these two poems is how similar their methods for
addressing related tragedies are, revealing the fact that no matter how distant two authors might
be in culture, background, and challenges poetry represents a universal means to express emotion
and combat the challenges of any environment.