By the 1700s, the Thames was one of the world's busiest rivers because London was the center of the British empire.
In her poem "Eighteen Hundred and Eleven," Barbauld provides an image of the Thames, no longer full of the "fleets" of industry and commerce, part of her future vision of London, and Britian as a whole, that has declined, since Genius has moved on to other places to rouse great civilizations.
And, choked no more with fleets, fair Thames survey
Through reeds and sedge pursue his idle way. (lines 175-176)
Parent Map
Vetted?
No