Comparing blake’s london and wordsworths unpon west minster bridge Essay

How do the poets use Structure, language and form in the two poems to help present their visions of London? William Blake’s ‘London’ 1793 and William Wordsworth’s ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ 1802 stage two contrasting views of London. Having both been written in the Romantic period, the two poets use their personal experience of London to illustrate the different visions of the city. Wordsworth adopted the Petrarchan pattern (abba abba cdcdcd) to create his flowing sonnet that describes the silent, undying beauty of London; the intimacy with his description could be inspired by classical poets such as Horaz, Virgil and Ovid. Blake however hardened to use a more harsh approach, delivering his dramatic reality of the dejected city. The two poems hold an expressive passion throughout and both have a deeper inner meaning than what’s seen at surface value. At a first glance, these two poems seem the complete opposite. One compliments the natural beauty of London whilst the other only states the traumatic situations faced through a sinister, dark city. This style could have been inspired by Blake’s surrounding of the French revolution which was imminent over London, there’s a possibility that the murder and violence could have encouraged Blake to give his reality of the capital in the 18th century. Despite the obvious differences, the techniques and narrative set out by both poets are similar. Both Blake and Wordsworth chose to underline their visions of London by using some sort of rhyming scheme and iambs to manipulate the sounds and rhythm. Wordsworth’s undoubted admiration of London is expressed through his constant use of elegant praises. He masters a faint use of a strange paradox through the first lines saying earth has nothing more ‘fair’ which exemplifies a tranquil, natural beauty, undisturbed by the obvious industrial city. The paradox having been established at the beginning of the octave stating the impossible unity of both a natural beauty and industrial development is explained towards the end through the line, ‘like a garment, wear’. This reveals that the city is wearing the natural ‘beauty of the morning’ rather than being it. This structural technique continues in his next lines completing his paradoxical image. The fact that the city is ‘bare’ relates back to the first contradiction by suggesting that London wears ‘the smokeless air’ that is the ‘fair’ beauty. Wordsworth uses the petrarchan pattern to compliment the imag e of the uninterrupted London. The poets emotion filled description of a motionless London implies that he rather prefers a non-industrializing, natural capital compared to the 19th centuries bustling metropolis. In his sestet (cdcdcd) the poet emphasizes the connection of whole poem has and how it coheres well together. He does this by using the sestet- steep, deep, asleep- to draw attention to that fact that the city is invalid in the way that the commerce of London has not yet awaken but is asleep. He keeps this in mind whilst still stating that the fact of the matter is, the city is more alive through its natural presence. The way he describes the river ‘glideth at his own sweet will’ gives the reader a sense of undisturbed freedom and also relates to the poets overflowing, relentless and poignant description. Wordsworth creates a more flattering image of London when he explains how the sun has lightened it perfectly, ‘Never did the sun more beautifully steep’. The line: ‘in his first splendour,’ makes the poet appear to be referring to ‘god’ through his supposedly absent minded mention of ‘his’ but he’s not because previously he mentioned that the never had the ‘sun more beautifully steep’. This makes sense as the idea of the sun steeping gracefully over London ties in with the poems overall goal to exploit the capital as some sort of wonderful place however the idle image of the originator who created ‘valley, rock, or hill;’ formulate the idea that Wordsworth is talking about ‘god’ as having the first insight into the capital and how it hasn’t changed through his eyes, looking past the ‘ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples’. Thus creating a more colloquial style of writing; however there is the fact that this poem was written in the 19th century where everyone would have believed in ‘god’. This idea could be the underlining of the word ‘sun’. I believe that Wordsworth’s sole adopted style is smooth and poetic, he holds a passion for the topics he chooses to write about which flatter his nature inspired manner. Other poems by Wordsworth which support my supposition are ‘I wander lonely as a cloud’ and ‘Three years she grew in Sun and Shower’. In the 4th stanza the tone of the poem suddenly changes into an ominous low mood with a lingering and menacing spell. The word ‘most’ has a lasting significance in the line as it institutes the fact that prostitution is causing this wild midnight rush. The changed tone of the poem and the imagery created in this stanza stands out as a dramatic close the blatantly sorrow-filled poem. Adding to the sharpness of the bitter ending, the tone that is usually poetic with a bouncy rhythm has stopped delivering the full force of what Blake calls ‘reality’.