London: A Poem in Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal

In Johnson’s poem, the city of London symbolizes a loss of morality, religion, virtue, and order. Despite being the capital of England, London is a foreign entity: “the needy villain’s gen’ral home, / The common shore of Paris and of Rome” (Lines 94-95). Johnson intended the word “shore” as a pun on “sewer,” implying that London was home to figurative filth and sewage of these corrupt lands. The reference to Paris and Rome is significant—Johnson worries that London could become “a French metropolis” (Line 98), an insult that combines two threats: foreignness and an uncontrollably large size. A French metropolis is inherently inorganic and alien. Johnson’s poem teems with specific vices associated with London, as well as general dangers posed by any city. Because the city is a place where old connections are lost and new money reigns, it is a space of dislocation and disorder. All institutions except commerce dissolve in a city, which poisons religion, marriage, justice, and patriotism. To the moralist Johnson, such a prospect is against Christian order, a fatal disruption of values embodied by a talkative “female atheist” (Line 18). Johnson believes in traditional ideals for women—virtue and humility—so a freethinking woman, who participates in public life and abandons religion, illustrates the destructive potential of the modern city.