London and Home

In class today we discussed several different poets from the Romantic Period. In several of them, I found myself finding relationships between them and this city and between the subject of the poems and myself. In William Wordsworth's, "The Solitary Reaper," he describes the girl who is the subject of his poem as being lonely. He describes how she is lonely and all she can think about is going back to where she came from. I was able to somewhat relate to this because I have had moments on this trip while on the tube, exhausted and swearing, or eating another meal that seemed like it had absolutely no flavor, where I have just longed to be at home. There have been moments where I have wanted to just be back in Ruston with my car to allow me to go wherever I want to go and all the food that I like to eat. Although I have only had a few of those moments during my time in London, I was still able to relate to his poem in that way. I was also able to relate to the excerpt we read from "Beppo" by Lord Byron. In this excerpt we read, Byron discusses the things he loves and hates about London, in a very cynical manner. Although, he writes in such a satirical style, he is still expressing his feelings about the country he lives in and explaining how he dislikes many things about it, but he still loves it. This made me think about my feelings towards London and what I have learned about it so far. There are many things that I have absolutely loved about London. I have loved every place we have visited to sight see and all the gorgeous churches and museums and the awesome shopping. And although I love all of these things, there are a lot of things I dislike about the city and especially would if I were to ever live here on a permanent basis. I have enjoyed finding our way around the city and taking the tube and the buses, but could never see myself doing it on a daily basis. I also am not the biggest fan of any of the food here. The portions they serve are a lot smaller than I am uses to and their food does not have the rich flavors that the food in America does, especially the food in the South. These are just a few things I dislike about London, compared to many more things that I find absolutely amazing about this city. But because I have been able to find things I dislike, I think it has made me appreciate home a lot more. It has made me really appreciate where I live, in the small town of Ruston and appreciate all of the luxuries we enjoy daily, that aren't always found I'm big cities like London. I think that is one of the most important things about traveling, you find a lot of new and exciting things you love about the city you are in, but you can also learn to appreciate the place that you came from more.