London, 1802

“London, 1802” takes the form of a sonnet. It generally follows what is known as the “Italian” or “Petrarchan” sonnet rhyme scheme. The sonnet’s rhyme scheme has an ABBA CDDC rhyme pattern for the first eight lines (known as the “octave” of the sonnet), and an EFFGEG rhyme scheme for the last six lines (known as the “sestet”).

Wordsworth’s choice of the sonnet form is significant, because it was a literary form that was hugely important and popular back in Milton’s own day. In addressing Milton using the sonnet form and through the occasional use of elevated Early Modern English diction (e.g., the use of “thou,” “thee,” and “thy” in the poem), the speaker pays homage to the popular literary conventions of Milton’s time while also demonstrating, through his own confident mastery of the form, that he is willing and capable of following Milton’s example as both a poet and a political radical.

An apostrophe is a literary device in which the poem’s speaker addresses something or someone who is not literally present. In “London, 1802,” the