Charles Lamb's Letter to Wordsworth

AP Essay Rewrite Charles Lamb sends a letter in response to the English romantic poet William
Wordsworth to decline Wordsworth's invitation to Cumberland. Throughout the letter Charles
Lam uses the technique of irony and self-mockery in order to politely decline the invitation. The first technique that Lamb demonstrates is irony. In the first paragraph, in a romanticized tone Lamb talks about the dirtiness, noisiness, and overall wickedness of the city of London, and how it brings about emotions and tears from him. The reader might think that
Lamb is condescending and is making a jab towards Wordsworth for choosing "dead nature" over the city; however, Lamb is actually insulting of himself. A average person would not choose the dirty city over the beautiful countryside, Lamb knowing that himself, insults himself and makes himself seem a bit strange. Thus Lamb insults himself in order to politely deny
Wordsworth's offer. The final technique that Lamb incorporates into the letter is self-mockery. In the second paragraph, Lamb shows the reader his lifestyle, during which he also romanticizes quite a bit, making it seems as though if he did leave for Cumberland he would be leaving a huge about of important things. However, once the reader ignores the romanticism, the readers realize that
Lamb is actually a very lonely person who lives in solitary with nothing more than his ancient furniture. Thus showing self- mockery, he makes fun of himself for choosing isolation and solitude in a old house in the dirty city over the beautiful, refreshing countryside. Throughout the whole letter Lamb uses a polite tone. In order to politely decline
Wordsworth's offer, Charles Lamb insults himself using the techniques of irony and self- mockery. Lamb compares the two strongly contrasting city side to the countryside in order to make his points strong and clear.