Mapping the City

The city is the place we live: we weave our lives and experiences around it and it precisely this that makes writing about the city so powerful. Whether in prose (narrative) or verse (poetry), when witing about the city, the writer is able to imbue the city with the values and emotions the want to ascribe it. When mapping a city, you can garb it as majestic, fantastical, unfamiliar, evil, barren, lifeless, rich, poor, tyrannical et cetera.

When mapping a city, it is useful to 'personalise' the city by language (by use of jargon), diction (choice of words), imagery, metaphor or metonymy and not to forget - memory. Memory is a very powerful tool, not only in writing but in any field. The way we perceive things historically, temporally (time) and spatially (space) can alter the ways we perceive the many different elements and experiences.

That is why "walking through the city" is important when writing poetry. It gives an important insight into the everyday life of everyday people - it talks about the politics of place, space and the inhabitants of that space; time  and the passing of time; popular culture and the populace itself ( and potentially a comment on demographics).

Below are links to two different poems that I think maps a city well and there is a lot to be observed and understood from these poems:
In the City and Mumbai.

All the best,
Loe.