London by Samuel Johnson | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Samuel Johnson’s first major published work was the poem titled London which was published in May 1738. Johnson published the poem anonymously and the writer of the poem remained unknown for at least 15 years. However, the poem attained a huge fame and fan following. Alexander Pope liked the poem too much and tried everything to know about the actual writer of the poem but failed to know about him. Samuel Johnson imitated the Roman poet Juvenal’s third satire for this poem partly because he liked Juvenal and partly because he was following the trend of imitating Augustan poets during that period. Samuel Johnson criticizes the corruption, crimes, and poverty of the city of London in this poem. He uses the main character Thales to do so as Thales leaves for Wales to escape the problems of London. The poem had political connotations, criticizing the Whigs government headed by Sir Robert Walpole.
It is an imitation of the Third satire of the Roman poet Juvenal in which Juvenal’s hero Umricius leaves Rome because of corruption and hypocrisy. Samuel Johnson’s hero is Thales who leaves London for Wales because of corruption, crime, and poverty. Johnson’s friend Richard Savage also left England and settled in Wales but Johnson made it clear that it was just a coincidence and the hero of the poem London imitates Juvenal’s Umricius. Furthermore, Johnson’s hero is named after the great Greek mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher from Miletus, Thales. It is a rather long poem with 263 lines. The first 34 lines are spoken by the narrator who remains anonymous while the other 229 lines are solely spoken by Thales, the hero of Samuel Johnson’s poem.
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