| has gloss | eng: London is a poem by Samuel Johnson, produced shortly after he moved to London. Written in 1738 (see 1738 in poetry), it was his first major published work. The poem in 263 lines imitates Juvenal's Third Satire, expressed by the character of Thales as he decides to leave London for Wales. Johnson imitated Juvenal because of his fondness for the Roman poet and he was following a popular 18th-century trend of Augustan poets headed by Alexander Pope that favored imitations of classical poets, especially for young poets in their first ventures into published verse. |
