Analysis of Wordsworth's london 1802 sonnet
... pattern that gives added emphasis to the speaker’s argument. The octave develops the idea of the decline and corruption of England in which the country’s institutions, namely the church and the military, together with the cultural world are expressed through the metaphors of ‘altar, sword and pen’ (l.3) have become ‘a fen/Of stagnant waters’ (ll.2-3) and have lost their ‘inward happiness’ (l.6) which the speaker says is their English birthright. The speaker invokes the name of Milton and wishes that he would ‘return to us again’ (l.7) and restore the ‘manners, virtue, freedom, power’ (l.8) that England has lost. In the sestet, the speaker explains why he wants Milton to restore England’s fortunes. Unlike ‘selfish men’ (l.6), Milton lived in ‘cheerful godliness’ (l.13) and carried out ‘the lowliest duties’ (l.14), and it is these virtues that the speaker wants England to adopt. The speaker...