Author: Henry Tan, Heritage High School
📍Vancouver, Washington

In “London’s Summer Morning” by author Mary Robinson structures the poem, through the use of enjambment and iambic pentameter to create a smooth, flowing, and continuous poem to characterize this poem as a source of inspiration for herself.

The structure of this poem creates a sense of continuity and allows it to be read with a certain flow and momentum. Firstly, Robinson uses enjambment throughout this poem to create this effect. One example of this is when she writes “Now pastry dainties catch the eye minute//Of humming insects, while the limy snare//finds ways to enthrall them.”. Several of the lines in this poem begin with unimportant words like articles or prepositions like of, and, in, on, etc and almost none of the lines in this poem begin with a word that begins a sentence or clause. By carrying most of the phrases in this poem across multiple lines, she gets rid of the pause that is usually expected at the end of each line, allowing the reader to read the poem with a continuous flow. This enjambment also creates anticipation which quickens the pace at which the poem is read, as the end of complete thoughts do not line up with expected pauses at the end of lines in the poem. Also contributing to the sense of continuity throughout this poem is Robinson’s choice not to split this poem up into individual stanzas, allowing all lines of this poem to be read together, without pause. Additionally, despite the fact that she does describe scenes that would be considered morally negative, like the scene in which a man “slyly” opens his suitcase to try and sell clothes stolen by a prostitute to people in the city, she doesn’t go into great detail for any of these scenes and the quickness with which this poem is read also allows readers to move on from each scene quickly. 

Next, Robinson’s choice to use iambic pentameter throughout this poem also contributes to the poem being read with a fast-paced, continuous flow. One example of this use of iambic pentameter can be seen when Robinson writes “And the poor poet wakes from busy dreams…” Iambic pentameter confers a sense of rhythm, order, and a pleasantness to read on to the poems that are written in this meter. The use of another metrical foot for this poem would have drastic effects on the way it is read. In this poem, Robinson describes a variety of noisy scenes all occurring in the same short period of time, including a chimney and pot boy yelling to people in the street, vegetable vendors advertising their products, a man selling clothes stolen by prostitutes, etc. If written in a different metric foot, such as in trichees, for example, this poem, and the London morning she describes in the poem could come across as chaotic, polluted, overly noisy, etc. However, the use of iambic pentameter, along with the structural elements mentioned in the previous paragraph, like enjambment and the use of a single stanza make this London morning seem busy/productive instead of chaotic. The ease with which this poem is read also creates the effect of this poem being perceived to the reader as easy or natural for the author to write, almost as if the words flowed out of Mary Robinson in the same way that this poem could be read with a natural, quick and continuous flow, which characterizes this London and this busy summer morning as a source of inspiration for Mary Robinson. 

Robinson’s use of structural elements, like enjambment and the lack of multiple stanzas, as well as iambic pentameter makes this poem seem as if it was natural  or easy for Robinson to write, and that she didn’t need to ponder too much before writing it as ample inspiration already existed in the city itself. This can be seen also when Robinson writes “And the poor poet wakes from busy dreams,//To paint the summer morning.” This line tells readers that “the poet” was able to write this poem right after waking up, presumably from the comfort of their own bed without even seeing the full picture, just based on the sounds they can hear from their bedroom window, which shows how packed with inspiration this city is.