"London's Summer Morning"

In her poem, Mary Robinson details the summer mornings with descriptions that peak the reader's senses, as well as elaborate the numerous lives that inhabit London: "The ruddy house-maid twirls the busy mop / Annoying the smart 'prentice, or neat girl / Tripping with band-box lightly" (18-20), "In shops... / Sits the smart damsel; while the passenger / Peeps through the window, watching evr'y charm" (25-26), and well as the encounter with the old-clothes-man are vivid and can be seen within the minds eye. But with the last two lines of the poem "And the poor poet wakes from busy dreams / To paint the summer morning" (41-42) brings a twist. For if the poet is to be considered as the narrator of this poem, or even Robinson herself, then the poem is a complete fabrication. The poet overslept, and couldn't possibly have seen the morning events, unless the "busy dreams" are what they wrote down instead. This allows Robinson to make a Romanticized version of the summer morning in London, but cheekily throw in that it is all a "busy dream".