Compare and Contrast William Blake's 'London' and William Wordsworth's 'Composed on WestminsterBridge'.

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 Compare and Contrast William Blake’s ‘London’ and William

Wordsworth’s ‘Composed on Westminster Bridge’.

William Blake and William Wordsworth were both poets of the romantic era. William Wordsworth’s ‘composed on Westminster Bridge’ and William Blake’s ‘London’, are poems written in Georgian times, around the nineteenth century.  These poems portray each of the authors’ personal views of the City of London. ‘Composed on Westminster Bridge’ is a sonnet where as ‘London’ is made up of four, four lined stanzas. The main subject of these poems is the city of London, however it is clear that each poet takes a different point of view of the city. Wordsworth’s view on London is for the wealthier inhabitants of the city whose views are that it is ‘all bright and glittering’. In contrast Blake’s poem, far from being a celebration of the city is an attack on it. Blake uses first person, ‘I wondered…’ to describe London where as Wordsworth uses the form of the narrative to get his views across.

William Wordsworth uses a sonnet, a sonnet is thought to be a perfect poem and mirrors Wordsworth’s view that London was perfect. ‘Earth has not anything, to show more fair:’ according to traditional reading the picture we see in Wordsworth’s poem is an exaggerated tribute to the beauty of London. It uses grandiose imagery and praises both nature and mans achievements. It immediately sets out how the author feels in the first line saying;

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 ‘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 ...

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