Both poets use different symbolism to convey their ideas to the reader. Wordsworth shows his feelings for London in a figurative way. He personifies the sun, river and the city. He allows them to perform human functions such as wearing clothes. He continues this simile giving the river ‘a will’, something which is unique to people. He says ‘The City now doth like a garment wear the beauty of the morning’ This gives the impression that the city is alive, not just an inanimate collection of buildings.
William Blake’s poem conveys his feelings in a more abstract style, when he uses the people and buildings of London to represent the institutions which they are associated with. He uses the image of a church to criticise religious establishments and a palace to signify the state, and authorities who control it. He gives the image of the soldier’s sigh running in blood down palace walls. Here he is attacking the monarchy and government for condemning young men to death by sending them off to fight in foreign wars.
Many of the words in Blake’s poem have more than one meaning . In the first line he talks of London’s ‘chartered’ streets. Chartered can be interpreted to mean responsibility of the church or state, on the other hand it can be used to mean freely immoral. Taken in context with the rest of the poem I consider it to mean freely immoral as further on in the poem he alludes to prostitution, and other corrupt activities.
Wordsworth uses metaphors and similes in the poem to make the city seem quiet and peaceful. He says ‘the river glideth at his own sweet will’ making the river seem as if it is flowing along as smooth as glass and at its own pace in addition he describes London as ‘glittering in the smokeless air’ and having a calming aura. I think Wordsworth is being a bit sarcastic in what he writes because the poem was written when London’s docks were a very industrial area, when chimneys would be belching out smoke and it would be near impossible to imagine it as being ‘calm’ even in the early hours of the morning.
In contrast Blakes poem describes the youthful harots curse blasting the new-born infant. This is showing that the disease affects everyone because of the prostitution people in society. The last line uses the image of a marriage hearse being blighted by sexually transmitted disease. Marriage is supposed to be a happy occasion though here it is shown to be an institution that carries people to there death beds. Blake uses repetition when he refers to the marks on peoples faces, ‘marks of weakness, marks of woe.’ he repeats them as if to say that no-one can escape the misery of life in the city. He uses the word ‘cry’ several times to emphasise how scared the children were.
The Wordsworth poem is slightly less melodramatic in its outlook as it describes London as one moment in the morning. It has nothing in it that could relate to London’s people of what the future holds for them. The Wordsworth poem is more charged in the penultimate line where he says ‘dear God! the very houses seem asleep!’ He is so overwhelmed by the tranquillity of London that he feels the need to bring in Gods name. In contrast nowhere in Blakes poem does he use direct speech to heighten any of the emotions.