The Language in Upon Westminster Bridge is very positive and very up beat, expressing how pretty London is, how the poet believes it is the ultimate beauty
‘Earth has not anything to show more fair’
This, is quite plainly saying that London , in the poets opinion, is the most amazing thing that any person on the planet could possibly see. Also, Wordsworth believes that it would touch any person to see the sight
‘A sight so touching in its majesty’
He believes that, by seeing this he has been changed by the grand sight of London.
He personifies it by saying it wears clothes
‘This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning;’
He is saying that London is wearing the beauty of the morning like clothing, making it even more beautiful. This is personification of the city, making it seem almost a beautiful person in Wordsworth’s eyes. There is a paradox , a contrast saying
‘silent, bare,’
This is because it is morning and there is no one around in the streets of London at that time of day. Next we begin to get the contrast with nature in that Wordsworth says
‘Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.’
This implies that nature flows into the city, as does the city flow into nature, and, although they contrast, emphasise each other’s beauty in the world. The words ‘smokeless air’ make it seem as if the poem was written before the industrial revolution, as there is no smog. Wordsworth also believes that the sun is more beautiful shining on the city than it is shining on the natural world
‘ Never did the sun more beautifully steep’
This effectively says that the sun has never been more beautiful then when it is shining on London. This is a very personal thing to say as it purveys his personal feelings towards London. Besides the sight being beautiful, he also says it is very calming
‘Ne’er saw I, never felt a calm so deep!’
He is calmed greatly by the sight that it completely relaxes him right down to his soul. He ends by thanking God
‘Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!’
Apart from thanking God for this creation, he is also amazed how London can lie still, he uses personification to emphasise this in saying that the city is sleeping.
From A London Drawing Room’s language is very downbeat and pessimistic about London. It starts off by expressing the conditions of London’s sky
‘The sky is cloudy, yellowed by smoke’
By using the term yellowed, it makes it sound as if London’s sky are polluted and a diseased. The smoke is in reference to smog. It is very powerful imagery. Eliot states very well that London is very monotonous and quite oppressive
‘For view there are houses opposite
Cutting the sky with one long line of wall
Like solid fog’
This is a very powerful simile to use and expresses what Eliot wishes to say very well. It emphasises the monotony of London extremely well as it is exactly how it would have been for her. It is killing her imagination
‘Without a break to hang a guess upon.’
This is saying that the monotony of London is endless, and that because of this, she can no longer guess or have any idea of what is past the street into which the drawing looks into. Even the natural world is affected by the disease that is London
‘No bird can make a shadow s it flies
For all is shadow, as in ways o’erhung’
This is because London is all tall buildings and always overcast it is a good way of saying this. London is wearing clothes
‘By thickest canvas, where golden rays
Are clothed in hemp.’
This is saying that the clouds are like thick clothes that block out the sun. It is personification of the city as wearing clothes. It makes the reader think about how the atmosphere is being destroyed and has been for a long time. Everyone in London is always hurrying
‘No figure lingering
Pauses to feed the hunger of the eye’
The population of London are always on the move and don’t take time to look around or take anything about their surroundings. They don’t even stop long enough for Eliot to even be able to think about where they are going or might be going.
