Blake & Wordsworth were both Romantic Poets, yet their visions of London are opposed to each other. What are their conflicting visions of the same city and how do they differ from one another?

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Blake & Wordsworth were both Romantic Poets, yet their visions of London are opposed to each other. What are their conflicting visions of the same city and how do they differ from one another?

By Jack Benjamin

William Blake and William Wordsworth were both known as Romantic poets, preoccupied with the idea of the pastoral idyll: a bucolic landscape where man lived in harmony with nature, and whose pastoral fantasies typically invoked pagan deities and mythology. Blake’s poem “London” is directly contrasting to Wordsworth’s “Composed upon Westminster Bridge.” The views of Blake in his poem present dirge-like dour imagery creating a funeral tone, whereas Wordsworth’s is full of exultant eulogistic imagery creating and optimistic tone and view of London.

The poem “London” by Blake and “Composed upon Westminster Bridge” by Wordsworth have very different views about our capital city. One main difference is that Wordsworth describes the physical aspects of London and Blake describes the emotional environment. Blake’s poem “London” focuses on the negative aspects of the city giving his poem a pessimistic tone. William Blake brought out the gloomy characteristics of London due to him being a Romantic. As a Romantic, his poem “London” followed the way in which a romantic writes. He wanted to portray the natural aspect of London which is pessimistic and funereal. This contradicts William Wordsworth’s poem “Westminster Bridge” which has a very optimistic view of London. His tone is exultant and it eulogises aspects of London and the rhapsodic feeling he had when he was on that bridge in London.

“This City now doth, like a garment, wear

  The beauty of the morning; silent, bare…”

(Westminster Bridge, lines 4, 5)

This extract from Wordsworth’s poem shows the different view he had compared to Blake in which Wordsworth uses a metaphor to describe the city wearing what was “like a garment” and suggesting the “silent” morning was beautiful. This contrasts Blake’s view in which he is wandering through “each charter’d street”, which suggests he believes that London is corrupt and every street in London is owned and ‘hired out’ by someone.

Wordsworth’s poem is seemingly not typical of Romantic poetry due to his poem giving a rhapsodic and eulogistic view, and it contrasts the view of Blake in which he portrays a gloomy, depressing and dark tone and perhaps he is trying to show his internal struggle by this. As we can see throughout this poem Wordsworth uses argumentative punctuation which suggests he is trying to persuade the readers that the city is beautiful. With his instinctive sense he tries to reconcile the fact that the urban landscape of London is bleak. The title of his poem is more specific and he tries to suggest that his experience is a one-off and still finds this city beautiful in the natural world. We can see this by the narrator’s attempts to describe the beauty of the city in natural terms, for example: “never did sun more beautifully steep” and “in his first splendor valley, rock or hill.” This is trying to portray that the sunrise is as beautiful as the sunrise in the natural environment of London. Again, he presents the positive and jubilant aspects of London.

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        William Blake wanted to portray the point that London is a dire place where no-one should live. He tries to convey this by using a cynical and contemptuous tone which creates a depressing atmosphere. On the other hand, William Wordsworth employs a very optimistic tone portraying a London that is a pleasant place which creates an admiring atmosphere. The obvious difference between the two poets’ tone is the use of diction and the images it conjures up. Blake selects his words in order to create a dour and dirge-like image such as the “blackening church” and hapless soldier’s sigh”, compared ...

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