London: A Poem in Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1738

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Related Poems

“The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope (1712)

Pope’s poem, written a few decades before Johnson’s “London,” is considered a masterpiece of Augustan-Age literature. Like Johnson’s poem, “The Rape of the Lock” is written in heroic couplets and contains an epigram from a Latin classic. Unlike “London,” Pope’s work is bawdy and playful, a mock-epic that satirically elevates a trivial subject: a young lord clipping off a lock of hair—the “rape” of the title—from a young lady.

“London” by William Blake (1794)

Writing of London nearly 60 years after Johnson, Romantic poet Blake finds in the metropolis the same bleakness. If anything, the squalor of overcrowded, inequitable London is worse than ever as the Industrial Revolution is underway. Blake’s poem is not a satire, but a sympathetic portrayal of the living conditions of those living in poverty in the city.

“The Lights of New York” by Sara Teasdale (1911)

Teasdale’s poem treats the city quite differently from Johnson and Blake. The lights of her New York are romantic and beautiful, signifying “a fire that neither wind nor rain can dim.” Teasdale’s optimistic perspective is shaped by her context: a settled and planned 20th-century city. Additionally, Teasdale may have experienced the city as a site for reinvention and freedom—she would not have shared Johnson’s scorn for “a female atheist” (Line 18).

Further Literary Resources

“The thoughts to be brought under regulation; as they respect the past, present, and future” by Samuel Johnson (1750)

Johnson wrote critiques of society and politics regularly in his The Rambler, The Adventurer, and The Idler series. This essay, number eight in The Rambler, shows how Johnson’s beliefs informed poems such as “London.” In the essay, Johnson argues that humans must live by a strict, self-applied moral code of conduct; reason, rather than emotions, should govern morality.

Satire: The Classical Genre of Dissent: Juvenalian Influence on Samuel Johnson’s London by Geraldine Kantner Jones (1972)

In her master’s dissertation for the University of Richmond, Latin scholar Jones examines Juvenal’s influence on Johnson, particularly in the context of “London.” She shows how Juvenal’s work critiques corruption in society and uses exaggeration of vices and a sharp tone to perfect its pitch; Johnson uses many of the same literary techniques.

“Samuel Johnson was more than a quotable grouch who wrote the dictionary” by Henry Hitchings (2018)

Writing for The Evening Standard, Hitchings, a critic and Johnson scholar, explores Johnson’s bittersweet relationship with London. While Johnson criticized the city’s chaos and vices in his work, Johnson also saw the city as an inspiration, “a school for studying life.” Using this information, one can argue that Johnson’s “London” draws its power not from the idealized descriptions of the countryside, but from the city’s fashions, follies, and vices.