essay on drawing room

In a London Drawing Room

By George Eliot

‘In a London Drawing Room’ describes the state of the city of London in the late 1850’s as smog and pollution filled the streets.

George Eliot

Nationality: English

She is considered one of the Victorian-era leaders of literature.

Poem Analyzed by Emma Baldwin

B.A. English (Minor: Creative Writing), B.F.A. Fine Art, B.A. Art Histories

‘In a London Drawing Room’ is a single stanza , free verse poem. The poem is 19 lines long and is a dark and dreary summary of what one speaker sees outside of her London drawing room. ‘ In a London Drawing Room’  was written by Eliot in 1869 but it was not published until long after her death in 1959.

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Explore In a London Drawing Room

• 2 Analysis of In a London Drawing Room
• 3 About George Eliot

This speaker’s exact location is not specified, making this poem applicable to anyone living anywhere in London at the time. The poem begins with a dark description of what is outside the speaker’s home. The sky is described as “yellowed” and the houses are so drab in their shape and form, as a line of fog. There is nothing in this landscape for one to marvel at or question the nature of. The speaker continues to speak of how the birds do not cast shadows as they fly through the city, the sun is unable to reach them through the thick layer of clouds, smog, and smoke that fills the air. It is like a huge canvas sheet has been placed over the top of the city keeping it in darkness. The poem concludes by relating the quick pace of those walking on the streets to the speed of the cars, carriages, and coaches passing. All appear identical and pause for nothing as they hurry along. The poem concludes by alluding to the state of the city, the lack of warmth and sun, being a punishment placed on the residents.

Analysis of In a London Drawing Room

The sky is cloudy, yellowed by the smoke. For view there are the houses opposite Cutting the sky with one long line of wall Like solid fog: far as the eye can stretch Monotony of surface & of form Without a break to hang a guess upon.

The first section of this poem, like the remainder, focuses heavily on descriptions of the landscape from this speaker’s window, doorway, or home. The speaker is looking out upon the whole, or at least a representative whole, of London and seeing it as dark, dirty, and ragged. It exists in shadow.

This is made clear in the first line as the speaker describes the sky as “cloudy,” and tinted yellow by the smoke of industry. During the time in which this poem was written, England entered full force into the industrial revolution. Their unimpeded growth and unceasing production were causing a rampant uptick in the amount of pollution pumped into the city. Smoke from cars, factories, and trains was filling the streets and creating a never-ending smog over the city. In addition to the “yellowed” sky, the speaker also sees houses opposite their own. They “cut” the view of the sky, and their “monotonous” tone and shape create what is similar to a long line of “solid fog.”

This line of houses, identical in “surface” and “form,” is so uniform that there is nothing to see that one might have to guess at. There is nothing “to hang a guess upon,” no mystery to explore or shape to question.

No bird can make a shadow as it flies, For all is shadow, as in ways o’erhung By thickest canvass, where the golden rays Are clothed in hemp. No figure lingering Pauses to feed the hunger of the eye Or rest a little on the lap of life.

In the next section of ‘ In a London Drawing Room’ , additional details are given about the state of the city. When birds fly through the sky over the city they cast no shadow. This is a roundabout way of saying that they are not touched by the sun. The sun cannot penetrate through the thick layer of smoke and smog. “All is shadow” as if a huge piece of the “thickest canvas” has been hung over the city, blocking out the sun. The rays of the sun are “clothed in hemp,” (hemp being a common material in canvas) completely covered by this metaphorical sheet of fabric.

As this speaker is gazing outside their home, they are searching for some break in the monotony of what they see. Outside there are no figures “lingering” creating “pauses” in the sameness of the view. The speaker’s eye is described as hungry, they are desperately seeking out something of interest, something to make the view a little more interesting; or perhaps even give some hope to this city that has become so dark.

Lines 13-19

All hurry on & look upon the ground, Or glance unmarking at the passers by The wheels are hurrying too, cabs, carriages All closed, in multiplied identity. The world seems one huge prison-house & court Where men are punished at the slightest cost, With lowest rate of colour, warmth & joy.

The last section of this poem concludes the description of this dreary world. All those who walk along the streets do not pause for anything, they “hurry on” with their eyes cast “upon the ground.” They make no effort to communicate with anyone they pass, or with the speaker, something that she would most likely relish.

The cars, cabs, and carriages mimic those walking on the streets. They too hurry along, their wheels quickly spinning. The doors, windows, and roofs are all closed up, making each identical to the one that came before it. Once again there is nothing to break the monotony of the city landscape.

The poem concludes with three lines summing up the state of London. The world, it seems to the speaker, is like “one huge prison-house & court.” The men (and women) who walk through this prison world are being punished for whatever small sin they may have committed by a lack of “colour, warmth, & joy.”

These last lines make it possible that the speaker believes the residents of the city have done something to deserve this fate. Whether that something is large or small, they have been punished with monotony.

About George Eliot

Mary Ann Evans, better known as her pseudonym George Eliot , was born in November of 1819 in Warwickshire, England. Evans developed a great religious fervor while in school as a young woman but moved away from the church after becoming acquainted with more radical beliefs. After finishing school Eliot lived with her father in Coventry until his death. She moved to London where she began to contribute to ‘Westminster Review,’ a journal that focused on philosophy. She would eventually become the editor.

Through her connections in literary circles, she met and began to live with George Henry Lewes who was married to someone else. Due to the scandalous nature of their relationship, she was shunned by her friends and family. It was during this time that she began to write. Her first novel , ‘Adam Bede’ was published in 1859 to great acclaim. She chose to use a male pen name to ensure that her books were taken seriously. Her most popular novel, ‘Middlemarch’ was published in 1872.

Her writing provided an inroad back into society and she married John Cross, a friend of Lewes’ after his death. Eliot Died in December of 1880 and is buried in the famous Highgate Cemetery in London.

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good analysis

this is a great analysis! because of you i got gcse grade 9+!!! thank you!!!!

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This is a good poem that will make us lose our gcse marks

Why, because you find it difficult? If there is anything specifically that you need explaining please let us know.

Those poem is s**t and it will make us lose our gcse marks

I rather like it!

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Baldwin, Emma. "In a London Drawing Room by George Eliot". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/george-eliot/in-a-london-drawing-room/ . Accessed 25 September 2024.

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In a London Drawingroom Summary & Analysis by George Eliot

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

George Eliot's 1865 poem "In a London Drawingroom" is a scathing critique of urban life in Victorian London. The speaker describes the city, which had become the largest in the world by the time Eliot wrote the poem, as a filthy, hectic place that robs life of its color, warmth, and joy. London's residents are utterly alienated from nature, each other, and even their own humanity as they hurry through the foggy streets, never making eye contact or taking a moment to simply appreciate being alive. So oppressive is city life, the speaker argues, that London might as well be a prison. The poem's plodding blank verse and single, unbroken stanza help to convey the relentless drudgery and monotony of the urban world.

• Read the full text of “In a London Drawingroom”

The Full Text of “In a London Drawingroom”

1 The sky is cloudy, yellowed by the smoke.

2 For view there are the houses opposite

3 Cutting the sky with one long line of wall

4 Like solid fog: far as the eye can stretch

5 Monotony of surface & of form

6 Without a break to hang a guess upon.

7 No bird can make a shadow as it flies,

8 For all is shadow, as in ways o'erhung

9 By thickest canvass, where the golden rays

10 Are clothed in hemp. No figure lingering

11 Pauses to feed the hunger of the eye

12 Or rest a little on the lap of life.

13 All hurry on & look upon the ground,

14 Or glance unmarking at the passers by

15 The wheels are hurrying too, cabs, carriages

16 All closed, in multiplied identity.

17 The world seems one huge prison-house & court

18 Where men are punished at the slightest cost,

19 With lowest rate of colour, warmth & joy.

“In a London Drawingroom” Summary

“in a london drawingroom” themes.

Nature vs. the City

• See where this theme is active in the poem.

Alienation and Conformity in Urban Life

Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “in a london drawingroom”.

The sky is cloudy, yellowed by the smoke. For view there are the houses opposite Cutting the sky with one long line of wall Like solid fog:

far as the eye can stretch Monotony of surface & of form Without a break to hang a guess upon.

No bird can make a shadow as it flies, For all is shadow, as in ways o'erhung By thickest canvass, where the golden rays Are clothed in hemp.

Lines 10-14

No figure lingering Pauses to feed the hunger of the eye Or rest a little on the lap of life. All hurry on & look upon the ground, Or glance unmarking at the passers by

Lines 15-19

The wheels are hurrying too, cabs, carriages All closed, in multiplied identity. The world seems one huge prison-house & court Where men are punished at the slightest cost, With lowest rate of colour, warmth & joy.

“In a London Drawingroom” Symbols

• See where this symbol appears in the poem.

“In a London Drawingroom” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

Alliteration.

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“In a London Drawingroom” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• To hang a guess upon
• O'erhung
• Lowest rate
• See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “In a London Drawingroom”

Rhyme scheme, “in a london drawingroom” speaker, “in a london drawingroom” setting, literary and historical context of “in a london drawingroom”, more “in a london drawingroom” resources, external resources.

"Dirty Old London" — Learn more about what it was like to live in infamously filthy 19th-century London in this story from NPR.

George Eliot's Life and Work — Learn more about Eliot in this biography from the Poetry Foundation.

The Eliot Archive — Dive into more of Eliot's work, including all of her poetry.

A Scandalous Genius — Learn more about why Eliot was such a radical artist, dubbed by this BBC article a "genius who scandalised society."

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In a London Drawing Room, George Eliot

FULL POEM - SCROLL DOWN FOR LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS​

LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS

The sky is cloudy, yellowed by the smoke.

The narrator immediately sets the oppressive scene of a rapidly industrialising London. The imagery of the city and landscape evokes a sense of hostility – the ‘cloudy’, ‘yellowed’ sky describing the smog created by the heavily polluting factories and vehicles staining the city. The effect is to illustrate the environmental decline of the city towards depths of uninhability as the inverse relationship between industrialisation and living standards endures and accelerates.

For view there are the houses opposite

Cutting the sky with one long line of wall

Like solid fog: far as the eye can stretch

Monotony of surface & of form

The repetitivity of the skyline is captured by the simile, ‘cutting the sky with one long line of wall like solid fog’. ‘Cutting the sky’ metaphorically reflects the damaging impact of urbanisation on the environment, the damage it’s inflicting on the natural world akin to the harm inflicted by cuts from a knife. The comparison to ‘solid fog’ is a pathetic fallacy – fog associated with dullness and dreariness, harnessed by Elliot to emphasise London’s mundane and depressing urban landscape, devoid of natural beauty. The enjambement across these four lines also reflects the seemingly infinite array of terraced houses spanning the skyline, the continuity between lines mirroring their arrangement.

Without a break to hang a guess upon.

This line describes how the city’s homogeneity results in the loss of individuality, hence mystique ‘to hang a guess upon’, within the environment. The later lines reveal how this extends to the population, to whom urbanisation has reduced to souless entities devoid of social propensity. This cloning of society is a tragic phenomenon, referenced to highlight the harsh side effects of industrialisation.

No bird can make a shadow as it flies,

For all is shadow, as in ways o’erhung

By thickest canvass, where the golden rays

The ‘thickest canvass’ overhanging the city is a metaphor for the smog that shrouds the city. A byproduct of the heavily polluting factories and vehicles that line the city, its density is such that ‘all is shadow’, impenetrable to sunlight, such that ‘no bird can make a shadow as it flies’. While literally depicting the degrading environment, this imagery can be interpreted figuratively as a metaphor for the absence of hope amidst a rapidly industrialising London.

Are clothed in hemp. No figure lingering

Pauses to feed the hunger of the eye

Or rest a little on the lap of life.

‘The hunger of the eye’ is a metaphor for the innate human need for stimulation from both nature and social interaction. The lifestyle the narrator describes here, however, is devoid of this, leaving the soul, and the ‘eye’ for which it is a window, empty and unfilled. The overarching message is that, despite the lives and schedules of Londoner’s being more hectic than ever before, emotionally they have never been emptier with no time to ‘rest a little on the lap of life’ and take pleasure from it.

All hurry on & look upon the ground,

Or glance unmarking at the passers by

The wheels are hurrying too, cabs, carriages

All closed, in multiplied identity.

The comparison between the people and traffic bustling on the street dehumanises London’s population as a result of the lack of emotion they display and engage with, avoiding eye contact as they ‘look upon the ground’. The phrase ‘multiple identity’ emphasises how the people, devoid of individuality, blend into one entity ‘closed’ off to the surrounding environment, akin to a pack of ants merging into one identically looking colony.

The world seems one huge prison-house & court

Where men are punished at the slightest cost,

With lowest rate of colour, warmth & joy.

The poem’s depressive tone culminates in these concluding lines as the narrator likens the city to ‘one huge prison-house & court’. This signifies the extent of the decline of its inhabitants’ quality of life, their freedom sucked away alongside it as they are captured by the shackles of an industrialising society. The ‘lowest rate’, meaning lack of, the triplet ‘colour, warmth & joy’ ends on the bleak, dreary note that the narrator has established and intensified throughout the poem, leaving the reader with this lasting impression of modern society.

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What is a Drawing Room? The History of the Drawing Room (To Present)

The drawing room may seem like an outdated phrase, and while it has a long history, it has affected how our homes are arranged to this day. Let’s take a look at the wonderful history of the drawing room, and its effects on the modern home.

What Is a Drawing Room?

First off, the question we know you’ve all been wondering is, why is it called a drawing room? The name is derived from the 16th-century terms “withdrawing room” and “withdrawing chamber”, which remained in use through the 17th century, and made their first written slate in 1642. “Withdrawing” referred to the act of withdrawing from company to relax in a more private area of the home.

A drawing room is a room in a castle or large home where visitors may be entertained, and a historical term for what would now usually be called a living room, although today’s palaces, country houses, and manor houses (and some townhouses) in Japan would be said to have drawing rooms. 

In a large 16th to early 18th century English house, a withdrawing room was a room to which the owner of the house, his dog, or a distinguished guest who was sitting one of the main apartments in the house could “withdraw” for more privacy. It was often off the great chamber (or the great chamber’s descendant, the state room) and usually led to a formal, or “state” left time.

While this may seem frivolous to us, at the time, it was a matter of class and status in society. Being able to entertain distinguished guests in an equally distinguished drawing room was of the upmost importance.

If you’ve ever toured a grand English country house today, it is immediately obvious that the drawing room was historically a crucial space for social interaction and display. This is reflected in the world of fiction, from the great novels of the victorian era.

In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, for instance, the heroine, Lizzie Bennet, descends late in the evening to find her hosts playing cards in the drawing room at Netherfield Park. Her decision to read rather than join them earns the astonishment of one in the company, Mr Hurst, and the admiration of another, Mr Darcy. There were many rules of etiquette at the time, and not adhering to them could get you exiled from high society.

The room was centred around a substantial fireplace to provide warmth, with tall windows for daylight and fine prospects. But drawing rooms received the best of the fine art, furniture, textiles and upholstery. This display of magnificence is exemplified by surviving late-18th-century examples such as Robert Adam’s drawing room at Newby Hall, fitted with Boucher-designed Gobelins tapestries and the 19th-century drawing room at Alnwick Castle.

The drawing room typically had multiple tiered seating areas, for guests and main member of the family to sit across from each other, with lesser members of the family taking flank behind them in chairs. Opulent tapestries, candelabras, and cushions decorated the room, along with ornate wall trimming.

Importantly, by this period, the dining room was perceived as an especially male zone and the drawing room as a female one. This became the guiding rule for social usage and for fine decoration in the English country house well into the 20th century. Women were supposed to sit in the drawing room to welcome guests, doing needlework or practicing the piano.

A crucial social expression of this separation of the sexes was the ritual retirement of women from the table after dinner. By convention, they withdrew to the drawing room. It is thought this custom arose from a mutual convenience: it gave the ladies time to brew tea and the men an interval to drink freely and discuss politics. 

The practice of ladies withdrawing can occasionally be shown to have shaped a house’s design. During the construction of Hagley Hall, Worcestershire, for example, Lord Lyttelton advised his architect that ‘Lady Lyttelton wishes for a room of separation between the eating room and the drawing room, to hinder the ladies from the noise and talk of the men when left to their bottle, which must sometimes happen, even at Hagley.’

This gender divide was also reflected in the decoration, so that drawing rooms tended to display ‘a woman’s touch’, in contrast to the more masculine design of dining rooms. This does not seem to have deterred some 19th century men however from producing admonishing treatises on the subject of ‘taste’ and the modern drawing room.

In 1865, an architectural manual in England defined “drawing room” in this way:

This is the Lady’s Apartment, essentially, being the modern form of the Lady’s Withdrawing-room , otherwise the Parlour , or perfected Chamber of mediaeval plan. If a Morning-room be not provided, it is properly the only Sitting-room of the family. In it in any case the ladies receive calls throughout the day, and the family and their guests assemble before dinner. After dinner the ladies withdraw to it, and are joined by the gentlemen for the evening. It is also the Reception-room for evening parties. There is only one kind of Drawing-room as regards purpose: there is little difference, except in size and evidence of opulence, between that of the duchess and that of the simplest gentlewoman in the neighborhood. … In size , a small Drawing-room will be about 16 feet wide by from 18 to 20 feet long: 18 by 24 feet is a good size: 20 by 30 to 26 by 40 is enough for a very superior apartment.

Moving forward in time, in 18th-century London, the royal morning receptions that the French called levées were called “drawing rooms”, with the sense originally that the privileged members of court would gather in the drawing room outside the king’s bedroom, where he would make his first formal public appearance of the day.

The Edwardian drawing room retained its distinction as the realm of the lady of the house, continuing to fascinate or horrify Continental observers. In the early 1900s, German cultural attaché Hermann Muthesius was intrigued by the Englishman’s habit of referring to the drawing room as his wife’s room, seeming almost to be his wife’s guest in his own house.

The Drawing Room In More Recent Times

In more recent times, and across the ocean, the drawing room had further applications. During the American Civil War, in the White House of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, the drawing room was off the parlor where CSA President Jefferson Davis greeted his guests.

At the conclusion of these greetings, the men remained in the parlor to talk politics and the women withdrew to the drawing room for their own conversation. This was common practice in the affluent circles of the Southern United States. 

Until the mid-twentieth century, after a dinner the ladies of a dinner party withdrew to the drawing room, leaving the gentlemen at table, where the tablecloth was removed. After an interval of conversation, often accompanied by brandy or port and sometimes cigars, the gentlemen rejoined the ladies in the drawing room.

The term drawing room is not used as widely as it once was, and tends to be used in Britain only by those who also have other reception rooms, such as a morning room, a 19th-century designation for a sitting room, often with east-facing exposure, suited for daytime calls, or the middle-class lounge, a late-19th-century designation for a room in which to relax.

Hence the drawing room is the smartest room in the house, usually used by the adults of the family when entertaining. This term is widely used in India and Pakistan, probably dating from the colonial days, in the larger urban houses of the cities where there are many rooms.

After World War I the living room was the least used space in the house, and was referred to as the death room. The term living room was coined in the late 19th or early 20th century by Edward Bok. It is now a term used more frequently when referring to a space to relax and unwind within a household.

Contemporary Times

In contemporary times, the notion of a drawing room seems very outdated. We have evolved from the desire and need for many different rooms with separate functions, to an ideal of an open living plan that encompasses all of the different needs for living in one space. Kitchen, living room, and dining room have become one open space, which if I’m being honest, I much prefer.

There’s nothing better than while hosting a dinner party, being in the kitchen cooking, while being able to talk with friends, and easily move between spaces. If you want to learn more about living rooms today, check out our article on The Average Living Room Size in the US .

Frank Lloyd Wright’s advocacy of open plan design in homes – also to be taken up by offices – was made possible by social and technological changes: with the rise of feminism and technological advances that made housework lighter, women were – purportedly – liberated from the kitchen; meanwhile, central heating and extractor fans meant that larger spaces could be both warm and unpolluted.

To learn more about Wright’s designs, check out our article on his house in Kalamazoo . The average British home now has 5.34 rooms, according to 2001 Census figures. It is to be seen whether this number will go up or substantially come down.

How odd then that in the 21st century as the dividing walls in our homes have come down, we appear to have gone full circle, with this return to the medieval practices of cooking, eating and even sleeping in one big room. Personally, I’m all for it!

The social rituals of the drawing room remain in some country houses, but are far from most households now. The formality of the grand English drawing room has often been softened by use and many from that at Stanway, in Gloucestershire, a room dominated by Chippendale day beds, or the regency drawing room at Knepp Castle, with bold papers, full sofas and a roaring log fire express an English ideal of elegant comfort that is admired around the world.

Drawing Room vs Sitting Room vs Parlour

Is it a ‘drawing room’, ‘living room’, ‘sitting room’, ‘front room’ ‘reception room’ ‘family room’ or ‘lounge’? These days it is sometimes also called the ‘television room’ – which tells you a lot about the principal function of that room in some households – and in the not so distant past it might also have been the ‘parlour’, which until the emergence of the ‘funeral parlour’, was where you laid out your dead – in addition to where you received and entertained.

The term parlour initially designated the more modest reception rooms of the middle classes, but usage changed in the UK as homeowners sought to identify with the grander homes of the wealthy. Parlor remained the common usage in North America into the early 20th century.

In French usage the word salon , previously designating a state room, began to be used for a drawing room in the early part of the 19th century, reflecting the salon social gatherings that had become popular in the preceding decades. 

A sitting room, on the other hand, is really the same as the contemporary living room and is still sometimes used. It does not seem there is much historical evidence to suggest that the term sitting room distinguished any other room than a drawing room.

The drawing room, and its passage away with time, is indicative of larger social and economic changes. Gender roles have changed so much, and the way we think about our homes in relation to our social lives have changed so much.

The drawing room once served a significant and vital purpose in the homes and lives of many, while mostly upper-class, people. Do you think we should return to the days of separated rooms, or continue down the path of tearing down walls and opening up space?

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Analysis of In a London Drawingroom

Summary & analysis of in a london drawingroom by george eliot.

“In a London Drawingroom,”  by George Eliot was penned during the tumultuous era of the Industrial Revolution and serves as a poignant critique of urban life in 19th-century London. The city is portrayed as a grim, suffocating environment, emphasizing the loss of human connection, individuality, and the beauty of nature in the face of industrialization. The poem’s intent is to shed light on the dehumanizing effects of urbanization, where individuals become anonymous entities, disconnected from both each other and the restorative power of nature, inviting readers to reflect on the human condition in an ever-changing urban world.

Context & Background 

The poem thus  reflects the Victorian preoccupation with the  consequences of industrialization,  the loss of connection to nature, and the challenges of navigating an increasingly urbanized and stratified society. It paints a  bleak picture of a city in the midst of transformation,  where the relentless pace of life and the physical environment contribute to a sense of confinement and unhappiness.

In a London Drawingroom | Summary & Analysis

The poem consists of a single stanza with 19 lines, creating an unbroken block of text that mirrors the oppressive and crowded atmosphere of London. The lack of stanza breaks or delineation of lines, reinforces the idea that there is  no respite or escape from the city’s relentless environment.  The meter employed is blank verse, using unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. This choice may also be seen as contributing to the poem’s sense of  monotony  and  dullness , mirroring the repetitive and industrialized nature of London life.

In a London Drawing Room | Analysis,  lines 1-6

The sky is cloudy, yellowed by the smoke. For view there are the houses opposite Cutting the sky with one long line of wall Like solid fog: far as the eye can stretch Monotony of surface & of form Without a break to hang a guess upon.

These lines exemplify George Eliot’s  critique  of the adverse effects of industrialization and urbanization on both the physical environment and the human experience. The polluted sky and the unending wall of houses symbolize the degradation of nature and the loss of a connection to the natural world. 

The opening lines set the tone for the poem’s exploration of the dehumanizing and imprisoning aspects of city life during the Victorian era. The speaker’s  critical perspective  invites readers to reflect on the  social and environmental consequences  of rapid industrialization and urban expansion.

In a London Drawing Room | Analysis, lines 1-2

No bird can make a shadow as it flies, For all is shadow, as in ways o’erhung By thickest canvass, where the golden rays Are clothed in hemp. No figure lingering Pauses to feed the hunger of the eye Or rest a little on the lap of life.

In the next section the poet continues to depict the desolation and degradation of London due to industrialization and pollution. The speaker observes that when birds fly over the city, they cast no shadows because the sun’s rays cannot penetrate the  thick layer of smoke  and  smog  that shrouds the urban landscape. The speaker uses vivid metaphors to liken the cityscape to a place  where everything is in shadow , as if a massive canvas has been hung over it, blocking out the sun. It reinforces the idea that the city is a place where even the most basic and  natural phenomena are disrupted.

All hurry on & look upon the ground, Or glance unmarking at the passers by The wheels are hurrying too, cabs, carriages All closed, in multiplied identity.

In these lines, the speaker observes the  frantic pace of life in London.  People are described as rushing about, but they are not looking up or taking notice of their surroundings. Instead, they keep their gaze on the ground or merely glance at passersby without really seeing them. This  imagery  emphasizes the lack of connection and interaction among the city’s inhabitants.

The world seems one huge prison-house & court Where men are punished at the slightest cost, With lowest rate of colour, warmth & joy.

In the concluding lines, the speaker offers a  profound and critical perspective  on the state of the world, likening it to a  vast prison-house and court.  It serves as a metaphor that emphasizes the  oppressive and judgmental nature of human existence,  implying that people are constantly  under scrutiny  and subjected to restrictions and punishments with little regard to their well-being. 

In a London Drawing Room | Themes

The poem portrays the  struggle of maintaining human identity and individuality  amidst the oppressive urban environment of 19th-century London. In this bustling city, people become like  anonymous ,  faceless entities , indistinguishable from one another. The speaker laments the  loss of individuality  as urban dwellers hurry through life, absorbed in their daily routines.

On the other hand, the urban environment described in the poem, nature is  obscured by pollution,  industrialization, and towering buildings. The metaphor of the city as a place where the sun’s rays are “ clothed in hemp ” underscores the idea that the city  stifles the natural beauty  and spirituality that can nourish the human soul. Birds, typically symbols of freedom and grace, are  rendered powerless  and shadowless in this urban landscape. The poem suggests that the  connection to nature is essential  for maintaining human identity and inner richness.

Analysis of Homing by Liz Berry

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The Difference Between a Drawing Room & a Withdrawing Room

Unlike modern homes where a room may serve multiple functions, Victorian society believed in giving each room a specific purpose and assigning specific activities of everyday life to a particular room. The wealthier the family, the more rooms were necessary to facilitate the activities of everyday life.

Less-affluent families allowed certain rooms to serve multiple purposes, and often a drawing room and a withdrawing room were one and the same.

The withdrawing room was the predecessor of the drawing room. Withdrawing rooms were intended for the women of the house. At the conclusion of a dinner party, the ladies would withdraw to the withdrawing room for conversation, while the men remained in the dining room to discuss business affairs, drink and smoke. Women would play cards or board games, or they would entertain each other with music. In contrast, the drawing room was used to entertain guests during both the day and evening. Drawing rooms served as the social center of the house, but only for adults; children were usually prohibited from entering drawing rooms to keep them from accidentally breaking the decorations.

Since the drawing room was used to entertain guests, extra energy and money was spent to make it as impressive as possible. Heavy curtains with elaborate fringe and trims, lush ferns in glass cases, delicate ceramic figurines and spindly chairs were many of the accoutrements found in Victorian drawing rooms. A fireplace was always present in this room, and the mantle was usually heavily festooned with decorations. Since the withdrawing room was used to entertain guests, money was spent on elegant decorations, but this room was much less elaborate than the drawing room.

The function of spaces in Victorian houses gave each room an implicit gender. The withdrawing room was a feminine space, since it was primarily inhabited by women and designed to physically shield their delicate sensibilities from the masculine activities of consuming alcohol, smoking cigars and discussing politics. The drawing room presents a struggle for Victorian scholars; the fussy decorations and focus on familial domesticity make the case that the drawing room was a feminine space, but other narratives must be considered. The drawing room was a public room to entertain both genders, and public spaces are identified with masculine ownership in Victorian studies. The decorations were also a way through which the man of the house demonstrated his earning prowess, putting a public face on the private sphere of the home.

The number of rooms in a house and the ways in which a family used those rooms would indicate the social status of the occupants. Those with large houses would have a separate drawing room and withdrawing room, while middle- and lower-class families would also use the drawing room as their withdrawing room. A wealthy family might've used the drawing room once a week for formal entertainment, while the lower and middle classes would frequently gather for family pastimes in their drawing room. The wealthy used a separate space called the morning room for daily household activities and the back parlor for family meals, but a family with a small budget would use the drawing room for a morning room as well.

• "The Drawing-Room - Its Decorations and Functions"; Lucy Orrinsmith; 1878
• "A Gentle-woman's Home"; Jane Ellen Frith Panton; 1896
• Bricks and Brass: Social History
• "Femininity and Masculinity in Eighteenth Century Art and Culture"; Gillian Perry, et al.; 1993
• "Public Lives - Women, Family and Society in Victorian Britain"; Eleanor Gordon, et al.; 2003

Hailing from California, Ann Mazzaferro is a professional writer who has written for "The Pacifican," "Calliope Literary Magazine" and presented at the National Undergraduate Literature Conference. Mazzaferro graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of the Pacific.

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What Is a Drawing Room and How Do You Use It?

Here's how it differs from other living spaces at home.

What Is a Drawing Room?

Drawing room vs. living room, drawing room vs. den, drawing room decorating ideas.

Living room , family room, den, or drawing room: What you call the lounge space in your home is highly personal and often geographic. While these terms might seem interchangeable, they're not exactly the same. A living room or family room can also be considered a den, but a drawing room is something else entirely. If the term sounds a bit antiquated, that's because it dates back to Victorian-era England.

A more common feature of historic homes than modern houses, a drawing room is typically situated off the entrance of a home. Ideally, there are large windows and plenty of seating options to provide a welcoming environment for newly arriving guests.

If you're still wondering, “What is a drawing room and what is it used for?” our guide explains everything you need to know about their layout, usage, and how to decorate them.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary , a drawing room is defined as “a room in a large private house in which guests can be received and entertained.” Unlike a foyer or entryway, a drawing room is typically outfitted with seating. In a home's layout, the drawing room is traditionally adjacent to the entrance or foyer.

The earliest known use of the noun drawing room is in the mid-1600s, with the earliest evidence of drawing room appearing in 1635, from a Victorian-era memoir titled Steward's Household Accounts . The term “drawing room” is actually a shortened version of “withdrawing-room” (meaning, a room one could withdraw to), according to the Oxford English Dictionary .

Whether or not you have a formal drawing room largely depends on the style of home you have and its layout. Traditional homes like a Craftsman or Colonial typically have one in the front of the house, but more modern, open-concept homes rarely have separate living spaces at all. Smaller homes will often only have one gathering room and may not have a true entryway or foyer at all.

Formality-wise, the hierarchy is as follows: the drawing room is the most formal, the living room is in the middle, and the den is the least formal gathering space.

Unlike the drawing room definition that emphasizes an air of formality, a living room is strictly informal. The Oxford English Dictionary definition states, “A living room is a room in a house for general and informal everyday use.” A drawing room, however, is a more occasional, formal space for dinner parties or professional in-home gatherings.

A den is traditionally a smaller room where “a person can pursue an activity in private,” says the Oxford English Dictionary . Back in the day, a den would be the computer room, movie room, or kid zone. Think of a children's playroom but outfitted for all family members. In most homes, this room houses a more comfortable sofa , entertainment system, and perhaps a video game console. A den is where you can indulge in your favorite media, entertain close friends, and wind down after work.

In smaller or open-concept homes, the use of the living room and den is combined into one space.

Showcase Sculptural Furniture

Because you're not spending movie nights and sick days on your drawing room sofa, it's the perfect time to prioritize style over comfort. Of course, the best couches have both, but for a drawing room, opt for something angular, sculptural, or statement-worthy. The same can go for armchairs and side tables as well.

Remember, this is a transitional space meant to allow guests to settle into your home, not where you'll be spending the entire evening.

Utilize a Bold Color Palette

Similar to a powder room , a drawing room is a space you won't use every day, making it the ideal space to go bold with your design choices. Occasional spaces don't receive the same wear and tear as the rest of your home, so you won't grow tired of the decor as quickly.

Opt for a moody hue on the walls, patterned and printed upholstery, and playful artwork.

Make Formal Fun

Just because a drawing room is a formal space, doesn't mean it has to feel stuffy. If you have kids and pets, this space should feel welcoming to them, rather than closed off. Focus on imbuing the drawing room with the same level of style and personality that the rest of your home has. Don't overthink it!

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In A London Drawing Room Analysis

This sample essay on In A London Drawing Room Analysis provides important aspects of the issue and arguments for and against as well as the needed facts. Read on this essay’s introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Upon Westminster Bridge sets the scene with the title. The view from Westminster Bridge is what the inspired the poet. From a London Drawing Room gives us the location but also an insight into the poet’s lifestyle, as only the wealthy had drawing rooms so it shows the poet is quite well off.

The location (being the drawing room) means the room is possibly quite dull. As drawing rooms were often used as quiet places for knitting or smoking. This could have influence on the poet’s negativity during the poem. The setting is very different from Upon Westminster Bridge, Both from the poets writing location (The drawing room) and also the view from the window the poet is looking out of, which could have influence on what the poet sees or hears which effects the poem overall.

Upon Westminster Bridge is a 14 line Petrachan sonnet which shows the poet’s love for the city (as sonnets were usually written about love). The poem is split with a volta after 8 lines which divides the sections. After the volta the poet seems more engaged with his own emotions. The poem is written in first person as an observer of London, giving his own feelings towards London and personal experiences.

The rhyme scheme is A,B,B,A,A,B,B,A,C,D,C,C,D,C, the regular amount of rhyming gives it an upbeat more positive feel .

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The tone is tranquil and it seems the poet is awestruck at London’s greatness. The poem is set in the morning, as stated in line 5. This means London will be quiet and peaceful compared to one written in rush hour where there would be many people trying to move about.

The Drawing Room London

From a London Drawing room is written in third person as an observer of London. It has 19 lines and is written in blank verse. It has a consistent rhythm to show the monotony of the buildings she can see from the drawing room and the dullness of it all. The fact there is no rhyme could also reflect the dullness and monotony of the buildings. The tone is pessimistic and gives a very negative view of London using lots of phrases with a negative connotation. There is also no mention of the time or day in From a London Drawing Room but looking at some lines referring to cabs, it could well be rush hour which would affect the poet compared to Upon Westminster Bridge which was written in the peace of the morning.

Upon Westminster Bridge begins positively.

‘Earth has not anything to show more fair’

The poet is being hyperbolic in saying there’s nothing more beautiful in the world than London. The poet then makes the point that you’re dull if you don’t believe this:

‘Dull would he be of soul who could pass by’

which is even referring to the spiritual side of a person in saying ‘soul’. The poet continues explaining his obvious love for the city. By using the word ‘majesty’. This illustrates how meaningful London is to the poet. Wordsworth uses personification in comparing London to a person, wearing garments.

‘This city now doth like a garment wear’

Wordsworth makes the city seem more real by personifying it in making it wear clothes. He uses ‘garment’ which is also an upper class term making it seem more ‘majestic’ as he stated in the line before. The poet then discusses the setting of the poem and creates a tranquil and natural feel ‘The beauty of the morning; Silent, bare’. Wordsworth uses what are quite often negative words such as silent and bare in a positive way, in the fact it lets him admire London. Wordsworth then names a list of man made objects.

“Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie.”

Wordsworth then contrasts the man made buildings with the beauty of the natural world.

‘Open unto the fields and to the sky’,

has a positive connotation and blends London into the natural world. He comments on the cleanliness of the air

‘All bright and glittering in the smokeless air’

using upbeat words with a positive connotation such as ‘Bright’ and ‘Glittering’ to make London seem a better place.

The rest of the sestet is based around the natural world and begins with:

‘never did the sun more beautifully steep’ showing the poet’s feelings about that particular day, It is the most beautiful the sun has ever been. This view of London has a calming effect

‘Ne’er saw I, Never felt a calm so deep’

The phrase could refer to Wordsworth’s soul when he says ‘so deep’, that the effect has even reached a spiritual level. Wordsworth emits a feeling of freewill

‘The River Glideth at his own sweet will’

The poet uses this line to suggest a sense of freedom, in that the river can glide at the pace it wants to, it has the choice. The penultimate line of the sonnet starts with the exclamation ‘Dear God!’ the poet thanks god for the beauty of the city in this exclamation. The last line creates a feeling the city could spring to life later:

‘And all that mighty heart is lying still!’

This line uses personification to make the city seem more life like when he emphasises the city is sleeping. But also to indicate that like a human it could come to life at any point

From A London Drawing Room begins with a feeling of emotion expressed mainly through weather.

‘The sky is cloudy, yellowed by smoke’ Eliot uses pathetic fallacy to suggest the yellowed smoke comes from factories that are polluting in the age of industrialisation. The next line outlines Eliot’s boredom

‘For view there are the houses opposite’

This continues the negative connotation for the fact the houses are probably dull, and it’s all Eliot can see. Eliot then uses words with a negative connotation and with a pessimistic tone:

‘Cutting the sky with one long line of wall’

is suggesting the man made wall is scarring the beauty of the natural world. The phrase also uses alliteration to suggest the continuous boring pattern and the way nothing changes. Another line which creates a very negative feeling about London is

‘Like solid fog: far as the eye can stretch’

The poet uses the simile of fog as it is impenetrable to show the monotony of London to the poet and how tedious and uninspiring it is.

Eliot then explains that poets can’t gain any inspiration from the scene and it stifles their imagination

‘Without a break to hang a guess upon.’

This metaphor is used to show there is nothing for the imagination to grasp. Eliot proceeds on to discuss how London’s dull nature and darkness effects the natural world

‘No bird can make a shadow as it flies’

which gives the impression London is very dark, and even the natural world cannot make it more pleasant.

Eliot then suggests London is covered up when Elliot says ‘By thickest canvas, where the golden rays are clothed in Hemp’

Hemp is a thick material and the poet is suggesting that the hemp is blocking out the sun, Eliot is using the hemp as a metaphor for the pollution suggesting it blocks out the sun. The poet also uses personification in suggesting London wears clothes.

Eliot suggests none of the London citizens ever stop to have a look round,

‘No figures lingering pauses to feed the hunger of the eye’

Elliot uses words with negative connotation to suggest they’re always moving and don’t ever take note of what’s around them. This theme is then continued in the next line

‘Or rest a little on the lap of life’

Again indicating the fact the people of London just continue their normal lives with no thought. Eliot then uses personification and suggests that cars, cabs and carriages all act in the same way, ‘hurrying along’ the personification makes it seem as if everything is just running in a system. The poet returns to the idea that everyone acts the same in the line ‘All closed, in multiplied identity’.

The last three lines are the opinions of the poet and state that London is like one giant prison and that everyone is enslaved,

‘With lowest rate of colour warmth and joy’ this is pessimistic when conveying the lack of colour feeling and emotion within London.

The two poems in comparison are very different. They both have very conflicting views on London, and both poets mention London in different ways. Upon Westminster Bridge conveys London very highly in an optimistic way whereas From A London Drawing Room is much the opposite and looks at the negatives. It has a pessimistic tone throughout. In phrases such as ‘Like solid fog: far as the eye can stretch’ which create a gloomy feeling.

The poems despite being very different at first glance have many comparisons between them. They both talk about the air one describing it as ‘ Glittering in the smokeless air’ the other saying ‘yellowed by smoke’ this shows the comparison of the poets views. Both poets also express views on the man made structures and the natural world and compare the effect London has on it. Such as ‘Cutting the sky with one long line of wall’ which is used in From A London Drawing Room. Upon Westminster Bridge Combines the two and discusses their beauty and magnificence whereas From A London Drawing Room takes feels that London is killing the beauty of the natural world with its dark nature.

Both poems are even similar to the extent they use the same aspect of personification in using garments or material to have an effect on the city but once again one is the positive – ‘garment’ and the other is heavy and dull Hemp. Overall despite the poems being very different in their depiction of London they share lots of similarities, in how they describe the city and natural world despite taking the conflicting views on it.

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London Drawing Room

Updated 13 October 2022

Subject Europe

Downloads 48

Category Art ,  World

Topic London ,  Painting

Paintings in "In a London Drawingroom"

Paintings play a key function in bringing George Eliot’s message across providing tangible feelings and principles in the poem.

In a London Drawingroom uses concrete imagery giving the reader descriptive scenery to imagine. It shows as an alternative the readers what is happening instead of just telling it. This creates a very vivid and commanding influence in the readers’ mind.

Imagery in "In a London Drawingroom"

The lack of rhyme in the poem further creates the sense of everything now not going on well. The strength of the poem undoubtedly lies in its abundance of imagery.

There are two types of imagery which can be discerned in George Eliot’s In a London Drawing Room . Firstly, there are direct pictures which directly relate to the choice of words by way of George Eliot, the city’s regular repetitious architecture in the city renders the context unappealing and tedious. The poet additionally constructs open imagery, for example "far as the eye can stretch/Monotony of surface & of form/Without a break to hang a guess upon." The use of short sentences in the poem also inundates the reader with images which are filled with potent and descriptive words. The speaker also uses these short sentences to express messages such as the way London has become dull and dreary. George Eliot uses this technique not only to describing objects but also to imbue them with multiple new meanings.

Symbolism in "In a London Drawingroom"

The powerful use of symbol and symbolism in the poem adds to the effect of the images and provides manifold levels of meaning which the reader can interpret. The poem In a London Drawingroom has an unenthusiastic title that gives the reader a pessimistic impression. The preposition "In a" produces this sense of confinement and captivity which is greatly depressing. The title further instantly lets the reader know that the speaker is someone residing in London or at the least has very wide knowledge about London because they speak from a "Drawing-room" perspective. The focus of the poem is the speaker’s observation from a drawing room where the speaker describes what they see as well as their thoughts about the view, the city as well as its people. Symbolism plays a central role because of the way it is used depict life in London. "The world seems one huge prison-house and court/Where men are punished at the slightest cost/With lowest rate of colour, warmth and joy". These symbols give a compelling idea of what living in London may entail.

Tone in "In a London Drawingroom"

The tone used, which is the same throughout the poem and does not shift, creates a pessimistic and gloomy mood same tone throughout poem. The tone "In a London Drawing-room" seems to pluck out every fault in London while emphasizing the notion of "multiplied identities" as well as "one huge prison house" which in consideration are very dismal ideas, such as when the speaker says "The sky is cloudy, yellowed by the smoke. 'solid fog' No bird can make a shadow as it flies, For all is shadow as in ways o'erhung By thickest canvass, where the golden rays Are clothed in hemp. No figure lingering Pauses to feed the hunger of the eye Or rest a little on the lap of life." The poet's attitude and expression toward London is not only solemn but also ironic. The tone George Eliot uses in In a London Drawingroom controls the poem’s overall mood in the sense of a suffusing bleak atmosphere intended to influence the readers' emotional response in a unwelcoming and drab manner. The tone has succeeded in fostering desolate expectations all through the poem.

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A History of Drawing

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> Blog > Drawing Room Design Ideas > Drawing Room Decoration Ideas

Seven Effective Drawing Room Decoration Ideas

by Noopur Lidbide | February 16, 2024 | 5 mins read

February 16, 2024

Creative ways to create a welcoming drawing room in your home

When designing homes, the spaces given a great deal of thought include the living or drawing rooms, and rightfully so! Typically, these are the spaces where you entertain friends and relatives on special occasions and unwind with the family. Most importantly, a drawing room is one of the first things that anyone who comes over notices in your home. It is, therefore, crucial to tastefully design the drawing room to make the right first impression of your style and taste.

Traditionally, drawing rooms are entertainment rooms separate from the living room in a house. Modern homes today may not come with a separate room just for entertaining guests. But your living/drawing room can definitely be designed and decorated in a manner that sets a comfortable vibe for when guests are over at your place. These seven drawing room decoration ideas are entirely doable in a modern home setting.

Clean Spaces

This drawing room looks bright and welcoming. The white ceiling and walls make the space look clean and fresh. Big windows on the right make it an open living space, which when combined with the warm colour tones of the curtains gives the place a breezy look. The drawing room decoration, including the colour scheme, the lamp, the rug and the wall decor, are all minimal and in harmony with each other, delivering on the vibe that the room demands.

Drawing Room Decoration For Compact Spaces

When your living room doubles up as the drawing room (which is the case with most modern homes, big or small), the right decor can help give the room its own personality like the one in question. The minimal room has a fuss-free, yet comfortable, seating arrangement, complete with a warm rug on the floor for optimum interior decoration of drawing room. The pictures and lamp add to the cosy setting. Flowers and potted plants add a bit of charm and a pop of colour to space.

Artsy Drawing Room Decor

The room shows the artistic nature of the homeowner. The first thing that draws your attention is an ornate mirror piece on the right wall. The room has a false ceiling which has enabled the owner to be creative with overhead lighting. The homey sofa and coffee table are the perfect set-up for having loved ones over. The partition cleverly divides the entertaining area from the rest of the room, while still keeping the space open. This room is proof that you can be practical and artistically whimsy at the same time with the design and decor.

Modern Monochrome

The colour palette does all the work for this drawing room. If you are wondering how to decorate drawing rooms efficiently and with minimal intervention, here is your inspiration. The dark colours are balanced with white decor and fabrics to ensure the room doesn’t feel dark and unwelcoming. Pops of colour are added with fresh flowers, greens and bright art and decor on the shelves. The additional seating on the floor immensely helps in setting the right tone for the drawing room.

Colour Play

“Magnanimity” is the word for this room. Though the drawing room is pretty formal and sophisticated, the light colours deliver a softer touch to the space. The decorative items for drawing room do the trick and the chic hanging lamp adds a classy touch to the decor. The walls are minimally decorated to let the largeness of the space do most of the talking.

Drawing Room Decoration For An Urbane Apartment

This urbane space is extremely elegant in its decor. The light and bright colours and the natural greens make the small drawing room look spacious. The stylish decor pieces are in sync with each other — the hanging lamps, the cute swing shelf, the hampers and the wall frames make the drawing room look extremely charming.

Drawing Room Decoration Without Sofas

The cane furniture used in this space has a distinct quality of transforming the whole room. The unique aspect of this room is that different and quirky seating options have been incorporated instead of a sofa, which would have been limiting in a space like this. Plants go with the natural theme of the room. The painting on the wall adds a modern appeal.

You can get really creative with drawing room decor, no matter the size of the space. Get in touch with us at Design Cafe for end-to-end design and decor solutions for your home.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Howards End — Drawing a bright future of England in the “Howard’s End”

Drawing a Bright Future of England in The "Howard’s End"

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Even without reading the acknowledgments in Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, it is extremely apparent that she derives her inspiration from E. M. Forster’s Howards End. From the first line, the reader is able to start drawing [...]

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essay on drawing room

George Eliot was an English novelist and translator. She is considered one of the Victorian-era leaders of literature. 'In a London Drawing Room' is a single stanza, free verse poem. The poem is 19 lines long and is a dark and dreary summary of what one speaker sees outside of her London drawing room. ' In a London Drawing Room' was ...

George Eliot's "In a London Drawing Room" describes the urbanisation of London, which she suggests brings suffering to its inhabitants, while Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "England in 1819" describes a country made desperate as a result of poor leadership. Evidence and analysis. "In a London Drawing Room". "England in 1819".

George Eliot's 1865 poem "In a London Drawingroom" is a scathing critique of urban life in Victorian London. The speaker describes the city, which had become the largest in the world by the time Eliot wrote the poem, as a filthy, hectic place that robs life of its color, warmth, and joy. London's residents are utterly alienated from nature ...

STANZA 1. The sky is cloudy, yellowed by the smoke. The narrator immediately sets the oppressive scene of a rapidly industrialising London. The imagery of the city and landscape evokes a sense of hostility - the 'cloudy', 'yellowed' sky describing the smog created by the heavily polluting factories and vehicles staining the city.

In a London Drawing Room | Analysis, lines 1-2. The world seems one huge prison-house & court. Where men are punished at the slightest cost, With lowest rate of colour, warmth & joy. In the concluding lines, the speaker offers a profound and critical perspective on the state of the world, likening it to a vast prison-house and court.

A drawing room is a room in a castle or large home where visitors may be entertained, and a historical term for what would now usually be called a living room, although today's palaces, country houses, and manor houses (and some townhouses) in Japan would be said to have drawing rooms. In a large 16th to early 18th century English house, a ...

Download. Analysis, Pages 7 (1721 words) Views. 1279. This sample essay on In A London Drawing Room Analysis provides important aspects of the issue and arguments for and against as well as the needed facts. Read on this essay's introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Upon Westminster Bridge sets the scene with the title.

Step 2: Pick one of the things you wrote down, flip your paper over, and write it at the top of your paper, like this: This is your thread, or a potential thread. Step 3: Underneath what you wrote down, name 5-6 values you could connect to this. These will serve as the beads of your essay.

The formality of the grand English drawing room has often been softened by use and many from that at Stanway, in Gloucestershire, a room dominated by Chippendale day beds, or the regency drawing room at Knepp Castle, with bold papers, full sofas and a roaring log fire express an English ideal of elegant comfort that is admired around the world.

Paintings in "In a London Drawingroom". Paintings play a key function in bringing George Eliot's message across providing tangible feelings and principles in the poem. In a London Drawingroom uses concrete imagery giving the reader descriptive scenery to imagine. It shows as an alternative the readers what is happening instead of just telling it.

Get My Paper. 4. Wordsworth's Westminster Bridge vs Elliot's In a London Drawing-room. Words • 1955. Pages • 8. Paper Type: 1800 Word Essay Examples. The two poems describe London, but "Upon Westminster Bridge" describes the city from a tourist's point of view whereas "In a London Drawing-room" talks about the city from a Londoners ...

In this tutorial, I'll teach you how to draw a room in one point perspective, using basic shapes and easy steps. If you would like to learn more please consi...

This drawing room looks bright and welcoming. The white ceiling and walls make the space look clean and fresh. Big windows on the right make it an open living space, which when combined with the warm colour tones of the curtains gives the place a breezy look. The drawing room decoration, including the colour scheme, the lamp, the rug and the ...

View my new drawing course for beginners here: https://www.circlelineartschool.com See How to Draw a Room in Perspective Narrated Step by Step for Beginners....

Few subjects seem better suited for traditional Victorian drawing room conversation than that of social class. Written in 1910, E.M. Forster's Howards End has just enough Victorian influence to concern itself with the struggles of social class, while simultaneously being just Edwardian enough for Forster to peer out of the drawing room into England's future.

Reid Rolls. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a drawing room is defined as "a room in a large private house in which guests can be received and entertained.". Unlike a foyer or ...

Boardroom Table Inventor Furniture Drawing. Jihade Kufiita. August 27th, 2024. I make Boardroom Table using Inventor with wood material and glass. Show more... Download files Like. Share. 7 Downloads 3 Likes 0 Comments. Details. Uploaded: August 27th, 2024. Software: AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Other,

This academic paper example has been carefully picked, checked and refined by our editorial team. My living room is undoubtedly the favorite room in my house. It is the room where I relax when I am tired. I entertain my friends and any other guests in my living room. My living room is designed in such a way that windows are facing the hills.

Short Essay on My Drawing Room5 Lines on My Drawing Room in EnglishMy Drawing Room Essay in English 5 LinesIf you like this video, Subscribe to our channel.T...

Why is a room called a drawing room? A drawing room is a room in a house where guests are received and entertained. It is usually a large, formal room that is decorated with fine furniture and artwork. The term "drawing room" comes from the 16th century, when it was used to describe a room in which people would gather to draw and paint.

RSK Papers - Click Here. Pool Late News Papers - Click Here. Discussion Room - Click Here. Pool Draw This Week 10 2024 Banker Room. Before you post your comments for this week below is a guide for all users on this page. It is important to pay attention to this rule in order to get your bankers approved by our administrator.

Significance of Drawing. Drawing by itself is an art that gives peace and pleasure. Furthermore, learning the art of drawing can lead to efficiency in other mediums. Also, having an accurate drawing is the basis of a realistic painting. Drawing has the power to make people more expressive. It is well known that the expression of some people can ...

This visual essay presents the design research project focusing on Gao Xingjian (b. 1940), who is a Chinese-born novelist, playwright, and painter in exile. He is also a Nobel laureate in literature (2000) for the universal validity, bitter insights, and linguistic ingenuity of his writings. This essay explores the under-researched architectural and spatial allegories of Gao's literary and ...

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Thinking through drawing

4 November 2016 By Chris Wilkinson Essays

1/10 King’s Cross Gasholders

2/10 King’s Cross Gasholders

3/10 Maggie’s Centre at Oxford

4/10 Maggie’s Centre at Oxford

5/10 Maggie’s Centre at Oxford

6/10 Mary Rose Museum

7/10 Mary Rose Museum

8/10 Dyson Campus at Malmesbury

9/10 Dyson Campus at Malmesbury

10/10 Dyson Campus at Malmesbury

Why drawing is a fundamental element that should always be part of the design process

When an artist draws from life, he draws what he sees and interprets it in his own way – the observer perceives the subject through the artist’s eyes. However, when an architect is designing, he draws what he is thinking and the drawings are part of the creative process. The artist’s work is an end in itself, while the architect’s sketch is perhaps just the start of a great building.

The creative process in architecture is complex and hard to define, but when ideas are generated, the simplest way of communicating them is by drawing. As Le Corbusier is reputed to have said, ‘I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster and leaves less room for lies.’

King’s Cross Gasholders: the development process can been seen from the very early conceptual sketches at competition stage, through to an explanation of the ‘watchmaker’ narrative, to general arrangement drawings and cladding details. It is an extremely complex project in which 145 luxury apartments are constructed within the refurbished Victorian cast-iron frames. Each of the gasholder frames has a different diameter and the radial geometry complicates the layout and construction. The project, which is now close to completion, was started in 2002 and has successfully maintained the original concept. This may, in part, be due to the number of sketches that occur in several different sketchbooks over the duration of the project which work alongside more than 1,000 CAD and Revit drawings

For me, the design process starts with getting to know the brief and analysing the site context. This is followed by a series of sketches in which I explore ideas as they come through. These early drawings may lead somewhere, or just trigger a thought process for discussion with other members of the design team.

Of course, they only form part of the process, which includes parametric modelling and form finding as a vitally important part of the design. My concern is that many architects are missing out on the drawing stage and moving straight from first thoughts into believable and seductive imagery in a very short time.

Maggie’s Centre at Oxford: the early sketches explore the concept of a ‘tree house’. These progress with CAD drawings, CGIs and an exploded axonometric projection that shows the fully worked-out concept of the building. Its complex geometry of slipped triangular planes, constructed out of cross-ply laminated timber, is intended to conjure up a sense of drama and mystery in what is effectively a single-storey building. The design uses the sloping site to bring visitors up among the trees with the belief that contact with nature is helpful for people when they are ill or suffering from stress. Photographs of the completed building show the results of the design process that started with a sketch

There are dangers arising from this approach, where the scheme looks finished before it has been properly resolved. It is always difficult to backtrack and the client may believe that everything works properly, when it doesn’t. A freehand sketch can often convey the concept and the design intent, while still leaving scope for design development.

I also believe that the act of drawing helps to stimulate ideas. Although a blank piece of paper can be intimidating, it helps to start by drawing what you know and allowing ideas to flow, which then have to be tested before being developed to the next stages.

Mary Rose Museum: in a very different project, early sketches show the conceptual ideas for the layout which works from the inside-out, with the Mary Rose in the centre of the dry dock that becomes the ‘shiphall’ in the completed building. The building takes its toroidal geometry from the shape of the ship’s hull and is designed to fit into its unusual context alongside Admiral Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory and the Admiralty buildings in Portsmouth’s historic dockyard. A sensitively illustrated CAD plan and section show the developed design in a realistic but painterly way, marking the turning point from concept to believable form

Whether for a commission or competition, architects are increasingly under pressure to produce quick design solutions and it is important to have a process that you can rely on. Working through options is common practice but surely it must be more efficient to work through ideas at sketch stage before deciding how to proceed?

Four projects by Wilkinson Eyre are featured in the Thinking through Drawing exhibition, which focuses on the design process from early sketches to CAD, CGIs, working drawings and construction photographs. On show at the British School at Rome, the exhibition continues some of the thinking behind last year’s show at the Royal Academy in London with the same name but, by concentrating on only four projects, it is able to illustrate how the early sketches influence the design, and ultimately the built form.

Dyson Campus at Malmesbury: developed over 20 years in collaboration with the design and manufacturing company of Sir James Dyson, early sketches in my 1994 sketchbook show the concept of the wavy roof which floats over the trees on the edge of the historic Wiltshire city of Malmesbury, together with sketch details of the entrance pavilions worked out in a design session with the engineer, Tony Hunt. A later sketchbook shows the masterplan for an extended site and concept sketch for the recently completed D9 Design, Research and Development Building, clad in huge mirror glass cladding panels, measuring 5m x 3m each. The sketch has a note saying ‘keep it simple’ and the photographs show a minimalist glazed facade with no decoration except for the delicate tubular steel escape stairs, which serve each corner of the building. The reflections of these stairs, together with the surrounding landscape, successfully enliven the glazed facades. Alongside D9 is the Lightning Café, serving 1,000 meals a day, as well as snacks and coffee. It is also home to one of James Dyson’s treasures, a beautifully preserved English Electric Lightning supersonic jet from the 1960s which hangs majestically in the lofty space, giving it a distinctive atmosphere to inspire the creative workforce. With this project, perhaps more than most, the sketches formed an important part of the collaborative dialogue with the client – Dyson was personally involved through the process

I am concerned that fewer architects are using freehand drawing as part of the design process and are relying more and more on computers. For me and for generations of architects before me, drawing has been an essential part of life. I believe there is something about the eye-brain-hand coordination that seems to stimulate ideas, just as it serves to communicate them. It can also be said that although rendering conveys a design in a superbly accurate way, a freehand sketch can often express the emotions and thinking behind the concept, which can be more successful.

I hope drawing will always remain part of the architectural process.

December 2016

Since 1896, The Architectural Review has scoured the globe for architecture that challenges and inspires. Buildings old and new are chosen as prisms through which arguments and broader narratives are constructed. In their fearless storytelling, independent critical voices explore the forces that shape the homes, cities and places we inhabit.

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My Drawing Room - Free Essay Examples and Topic Ideas

Drawing rooms can be defined by a range of factors, including their décor, furniture, and atmosphere. They may be cozy and intimate or grand and luxurious, but they share a unique ability to provide a space for rest and rejuvenation.

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• The Strongest Person My Mother
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• My Favourite Holiday Pinata
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• The Drawing Room as an Office Space
• The Drawing Room as a Nursery

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[with]Drawing-Room Surveying the Uncertain, the Estranged, the Monstrous

Article sidebar, main article content.

This visual essay presents the design research project focusing on Gao Xingjian (b. 1940), who is a Chinese-born novelist, playwright, and painter in exile. He is also a Nobel laureate in literature (2000) for the universal validity, bitter insights, and linguistic ingenuity of his writings. This essay explores the under-researched architectural and spatial allegories of Gao’s literary and theatrical works by interpreting his acts of withdrawal in search of a new perspective for meaning making in a time of crisis and violence most notably marked by the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) and the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966–76). First, this essay examines the traumatic process of Gao’s threefold withdrawal into the uncertain interior of the self. It then focuses on how such experiences of withdrawal have led to Gao’s post-exile play Between Life and Death (1991), and his literary invention of ‘fugitive pronouns’ to represent an interior that is unsettled, obscure, and vague. Finally, to explore the architectural potential of Gao’s play, the design research project [with]Drawing-Room translates the narrative of withdrawal into a spatial performance in three acts through methods of scanning, burning, and tracing. Engaging with notions of darkness and uncertainty through thinkers such as Giorgio Agamben and Francois Jullien, the essay argues against the light of certitude often uncritically associated with modern technology and a rationalistic mind set.

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Essay on Drawing

500 words essay on drawing.

Drawing is a simplistic art whose concern is with making marks. Furthermore, drawing is a way of communicating or expressing a particular feeling of an artist. Let us focus on this unique form of art with this essay on drawing.

                                                                                                              Essay On Drawing

Significance of Drawing                                    

Drawing by itself is an art that gives peace and pleasure. Furthermore, learning the art of drawing can lead to efficiency in other mediums.  Also, having an accurate drawing is the basis of a realistic painting.

Drawing has the power to make people more expressive. It is well known that the expression of some people can’t always take place by the use of words and actions only. Therefore, drawing can serve as an important form of communication for people.

It is possible to gain insight into the thoughts and feelings of people through their drawings. Moreover, this can happen by examining the colour pattern, design, style, and theme of the drawing. One good advantage of being able to express through drawing is the boosting of one’s emotional intelligence .

Drawing enhances the motor skills of people. In fact, when children get used to drawing, their motor skills can improve from a young age. Moreover, drawing improves the hand and eye coordination of people along with fine-tuning of the finger muscles.

Drawing is a great way for people to let their imaginations run wild. This is because when people draw, they tend to access their imagination from the depths of their mind and put it on paper. With continuous drawing, people’s imagination would become more active as they create things on paper that they find in their surroundings.

How to Improve Drawing Skills

One of the best ways to improve drawing skills is to draw something every day. Furthermore, one must not feel pressure to make this drawing a masterpiece. The main idea here is to draw whatever comes to mind.

For drawing on a regular basis, one can make use of repetitive patterns, interlocking circles , doodles or anything that keeps the pencil moving. Therefore, it is important that one must avoid something complex or challenging to start.

Printing of a picture one desires to draw, along with its tracing numerous times, is another good way of improving drawing skills. Moreover, this helps in the building of muscle memory for curves and angles on the subject one would like to draw. In this way, one would be able to quickly improve drawing skills.

One must focus on drawing shapes, instead of outlines, at the beginning of a drawing. For example, in the case of drawing a dog, one must first focus on the head by creating an oval. Afterwards, one can go on adding details and connecting shapes.

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Conclusion of the Essay on Drawing

Drawing is an art that has the power of bringing joy to the soul. Furthermore, drawing is a way of representing one’s imagination on a piece of paper. Also, it is a way of manipulating lines and colours to express one’s thoughts.

FAQs For Essay on Drawing

Question 1: Explain the importance of drawing?

Answer 1: Drawing plays a big role in our cognitive development. Furthermore, it facilitates people in improving hand-eye coordination, analytic skills, creative thinking, and conceptualising ideas. As such, drawing must be used as a tool for learning in schools.

Question 2: What are the attributes that drawing can develop in a person?

Answer 2: The attributes that drawing can develop in a person are collaboration, non-verbal communication, creativity, focus-orientation, perseverance, and confidence.

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Essay: I’m Turning Into My Parents and I’m Proud of It

Deputy Arts and Horoscope Editor Catherine Meyer has noticed herself becoming more like her parents — which she doesn’t consider a bad thing.

When I moved into my apartment in August, my dad stood off in the corner of my new bedroom and performed Carl Sandburg’s poem “ Chicago .” The recitation wasn’t well-received by his wife and daughters, who were painstakingly putting together a bed frame. 

When I informed my friend Andromeda about this, they were unsurprised. 

“That’s where you get it from,” Andromeda said, referring to what they describe as my “enigmatic” nature.

A thought that had been sitting in the back of my mind suddenly crashed over me — I’m turning into my parents .

Soon after, a second revelation followed — I’m proud of it. 

In the media, turning into your parents is illustrated as a disappointing inevitability. Progressive Insurance’s Dr. Rick tries to save customers from becoming their parents while selling them insurance.

I’m an outlier in this loathing of transforming into one’s parents — I’m 50% Christian Meyer, 50% Alison Meyer and 100% proud of it.

An addendum — proud for the most part. 

I’ve picked up on some habits I could stand to lose. This isn’t to say my parents have bad habits — the blame falls on me in how I’ve manifested some of their quirks.

Growing up, my dad didn’t have a television set — a fact he brings up frequently. When my mom makes mentions of her childhood shows, posing them as relatable stories, my dad furrows his brow and sighs, “I didn’t have a TV, Alison.” 

My childhood was one of abundance — including a TV — so I never thought I’d mimic this behavior. I underestimated the petty grudges of a kid having even one thing withheld from them.

Family trips to Chicago meant being able to walk through the American Girl Doll store in Water Tower Place, but never purchasing a doll. My only solace was found in our DVD of “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.”

My roommate, Cece, on the other hand, grew up with an American Girl Doll. This matter rarely comes up in conversation, but when it does, I huff and scoff and roll my eyes.

“I didn’t have an American Girl Doll, Cece,” I complain, kicking up a fuss.

Safe to say, American Girl Dolls are no longer discussed at our dinner table.

Instead of inheriting my mom’s fastidious nature, I take after my dad’s bathetic one — a word characterizing sentimentalism we once read in Merriam-Webster’s “Word of the Day” and have used ever since. 

Old books that no longer fit on my bookshelf litter my floor in piles. Donating them is out of the question — the memories they hold are too great to discard.

“Creating piles doesn’t count as cleaning your room,” my mom tells me. “You’re just like your father.”

But beyond childish grievances and overly-sentimental hoarding, my pride in my parental-based personality is palpable.

A couple weeks ago, I bought a pure wool coat from a second-hand shop in Andersonville — black with brown buttons. I paid a pretty penny for it. 

My purchase could be written off as an investment in a heavy, well-made winter coat — but really, it was bought with my dad in mind. Ever since I was young, my dad has worn a black wool coat during wintertime. 

Day by day I become more swaddled in my parents’ clothing — my dad’s hand-me-down cashmere sweaters hang loose on my frame and my mom’s old earrings swing on my ears.

“You look like your mom,” Cece once told me as I dressed for a celebratory banquet.

I felt beautiful.

My hobbies and interests mimic those of my parents as well.

David Sedaris, Barbara Kingsolver and Ian McEwan have quickly become my favorite authors, thanks to my mom’s recommendations. We sit side-by-side on the beaches of Lake Michigan , pointing out which David Sedaris essays made us laugh the most.

The other day, I purchased a copy of Billy Collins’ book of poetry “Picnic, Lightning” only because Collins is my parents’ favorite poet — dooming me to love him. 

I’m unable to contribute to group playlists, lest I confuse and ruin the general mood with songs from Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison and Lyle Lovett — my dad’s three musical prophets. 

There are other habits I’m sure my parents wish I inherited from them, but I absolutely didn’t. 

My mom grew up wearing prescription glasses like me, while my dad aged into them. They’re both meticulous in the cleaning of their lenses and the wearing of their frames. 

I let my glasses smudge and slide down my nose, much to their great annoyance. Last time my family visited me in Chicago, I was dragged kicking and screaming into the nearest Warby Parker, where my glasses were cleaned and tightened. 

Between the good and the bad habits, I cherish all the parallels between my parents and me. I am my mother’s and my father’s daughter, cut from the same cloth, just sewn together slightly differently.

And I’m eager to continue growing into their shoes.

Catherine Meyer is a third-year student majoring in history. She works as The Phoenix’s Deputy Arts Editor and Horoscope Editor. She enjoys writing humorous essays and feature articles about the people of Rogers Park. When asked what the weekly horoscopes will be, she’ll answer, “Pick up an issue of The Phoenix on Wednesday and see.”

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