The Vanity of Human Wishes - Critical Response

Critical Response

Although Walter Scott and T. S. Eliot enjoyed Johnson's earlier poem London, they both considered The Vanity of Human Wishes to be Johnson's greatest poem. Later critics followed the same trend: Howard D. Weinbrot says that "London is well worth reading, but The Vanity of Human Wishes is one of the great poems in the English language." Likewise, Robert Folkenflik says, "London is not Johnson's greatest poem, only because The Vanity of Human Wishes is better". Robert Demaria, Jr. declared the work as "Johnson's greatest poem". Samuel Beckett was a devoted admirer of Johnson and at one point filled three notebooks with material for a play about him, entitled Human Wishes after Johnson's poem.