‘Dull would he be of soul, who could pass by,
A sight so touching in its majesty’
This infers that the sight of London would evoke strong views in everyone who sees it.
In contrast to this, Blake’s poem is written is four, four lined stanzas with the same number of syllables in each line. This creates a regimented feel. It also uses hyperbole to criticise London and the sadness of the people who live there. Blake’s London is brutally painted as a dark, dirty, diseased ridden and deprived place.
‘And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness marks of woe.’
Blake uses ‘mark’ and ‘marks’ in a way in which we are not used to hearing the two words, he is meaning ‘notice’ when he says ‘mark’ and ‘sign, scars’ when he says marks. Unlike Wordsworth’s poem it leaves the reader in no doubt as to the authors feeling on the subject.
Both poets structure their poems to emphasise the words in them. As stated previously, William Blake’s ‘London’ was written in stanza (four) with four lines in each, which was created deliberately by Blake to produce a regimented, close to mechanical feel to the poem. It uses an A-B, A-B rhyming scheme to make the poem sound similar. This system also accentuates the last word in each line. Each verse of Blake’s poem attacks a different aspect of London. The city of London was, as it is today, the centre of commerce and finance, where money was made. This is what Blake is attacking in his first verse, the fact that a lot of money was being made by very few people.
‘… each chartered street,
Near where the charted Thames does flow’.
Corporations such as the East India Company had charters, which gave them monopoly privileges. The profits were enjoyed by very few.
In the second stanza, Blake deals with the oppression of the state and its,
‘Mind-forged manacles over the masses…’
He hears the cry of oppression ‘of every man, in every infants cry… in every voice, in every ban.’ This poem was written not long after the French revolution, the authorities were nervous of such a thing happening in Britain. The ban refers to the curtailment of freedom that the masses endured. The third stanza indicates the church is not spared in his criticism, although he was a very religious man he didn’t agree with the church,
‘Every black’ning church appals;’
Describes not only the fowl smoky pollution of London (industrial revolution), but also the shadow corruption. The youth of the nation were frequently sent abroad to fight and die at the whim of the monarchy and government. Blake draws attention to this problem in the final two lines of the third stanza.
‘And the hapless soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down palace wall’.
There are records of revolutionary slogans being daubed on the palace’s walls, such as “Dam Pitt”(Prime Minister at time), “Damn the Duke of Richmond” and “No King” in seventeen ninety two. In the final stanza Blake describes the desperate plight of society. The youth of Britain return from war disease ridden and maimed. They turn to the comfort of harlots (prostitutes) hoping that the night will hide their disfigurements;
‘…through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlots curse…’
By this the poet is describing sexually transmitted disease. This ‘harlots curse’
‘Blasts the new born infants tear,’
This is a description of birth deformities caused through syphilis. The final line contrasts a happy marriage feast to the;
‘Blights with plagues the marriage hearse’
Blake is stating that even something that should be creating new life through the sanctity of marriage is doomed from the start.
In contrast, Wordsworth’s poem describes London as ‘glittering in the smokeless air’ and of having a calming aurora. He uses symbolism as a means to convey his ideas. The sun, river and the city are all personified, he portrays all of these as having human attributes, such as wearing cloths.
‘This City now doth, like a garment wear,
The beauty of the morning…’
This makes you feel that the city is not just a collection of buildings, but is alive. Another human quality is given to the river which ‘glideth at his own sweet will’. ‘His’ and ‘will’ are the personification in this instance.
Wordsworths description of London would not be out of place in a travel log as part of the grand tour of Europe. Having read it, and going to London to see for yourself that ‘Earth has not anything to show more fair’, it not be long before you saw Blake’s ‘London’ where ‘the chimney sweeper’s cry’. (If you visited it in the nineteenth century).
Where Wordsworth can be accused of hyperbole in his extravagant description of the capital of England, Blake can be found guilty of the opposite, understating it. The last comparison to make is possible the hardest, which poem I prefer? I prefer William Wordsworth’s, ‘Composed on Westminster Bridge’, as it is easier to read, recite, learn and most importantly, I believe is it the nicer out of the two, it isn’t depressing, but uplifting.