In times of dire need many people invoke God's name to give them strength and hope. Some, however, turn to their heroes. William Wordsworth and Paul Lance Dunbar did just that through their poetry. In " London, 1802 Wordsworth cried out to John Milton, an English poet and political writer, to right the wrongs of Wordsworth's present-day England. In "Douglass" Dunbar invoked the comfort of Frederick Douglass, an American writer and abolitionist. The two pieces of poetry are very similar but contrasts are evident.

In "London, 1802 Wordsworth begs Milton to return and give England "manners, virtue, freedom and power" and champion the cause of liberty and public virtue once again. He is afraid of what England has become, " a fen of stagnant waters." Wordsworth praises Milton for his greatness and accomplishment, and wishes his return in order to restore England to her full glory. Like Wordsworth, Dunbar...