Bagher Amirzadeh - Faculty Member, the Department of English Language and Literature, Zand Institute of Higher Education,Shiraz, Iran

London, capital city of the Great Britain referred by William Wordsworth as “The Mighty Heart” in one of his works, has been throughout ages scenes writers, critics, bards, sonneteers, playwrights and novelist have often chosen for their setting depending on the development of the time. From Shakespeare in his doomed “King Lear” to his ambitious “Macbeth”, from the earliest poems and narratives composed in middle English by Geoffery Chaucer to the prominent poet and critic of the ۱۸th century to Dr. Samuel Johnson, to the highly talented Alexander Pope and distinguished critic poet T.S.Eliot and George Bernard Shaw –both winners of the Noble Prize in literature- have all tried their pens for London. This paper shall deal with major political financial, social and ideological and romantic trends of the ages bringing into limelight the critical conflicts and immense role London has played in English literature.

social and political overview, poets’ reaction to the age, greed and modesty