The only type of punctuation that Wordsworth inserts anywhere but at the end of a line is the comma. Even when he does this, the comma only calls for a short pause, and hardly disrupts the flow, as in “Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie.” Evans, however, uses punctuation indiscriminately wherever she is in the line, as with “Like solid fog: far as the eye can stretch.” Even when she is only using a comma, the pause is often longer, and more disruptive, such as in “All closed, in multiplied identity.”
‘Upon Westminster Bridge’ uses a sonnet’s rhyme scheme of ‘a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a-c-d-c-d-c-d.’ This again brings the feeling of a flow to the poem, and also interconnects parts of the poem. ‘In a London Drawing Room,’ however, is blank verse, with no rhyming at all, which, again, inhibits the smooth flow of the poem and enhances the undercurrent of depression about London.
In his poem, Wordsworth uses comparisons with the countryside to illustrate his admiration for the city, for instance, “Never did sun more beautifully steep In his first splendour, valley, rock or hill.” Many of Wordsworth’s best poems were in fact set in the countryside, and so he uses his intimate knowledge of that landscape in his appreciative description of quite a different one. Evans, on the other hand, only brings into grim reality the city itself, as with “For view there are the houses opposite.” This shows that Wordsworth is somewhat more idealistic than Evans.
Evans, in her poem, uses phrases involving colour, contrarily, to illustrate how unpleasant the city actually appears. “The sky is cloudy, yellowed by the smoke,” uses yellow, a colour usually associated with happiness and cheer, as a device actually to discolour the sky above the city. “The golden rays are clothed in hemp,” speaks about the golden sunlight, but only in the context of its being stifled and smothered. Wordsworth, by contrast, hardly uses colour in his poem at all, but there is colour implied in lines such as “All bright and glittering,” that add more real colour to the reader’s mental picture than the mentions in ‘In a London Drawing Room.”
Wordsworth speaks of the varied nature of the city in ‘Upon Westminster Bridge,” such as in “Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie.” He uses this to point out the diverse attractiveness of London. Evans, conversely, discusses how it is monotonous, dull and self-repeating. A line that illustrates this well is, “All closed, in multiplied identity,” which is about how every person in London is, to every other person, exactly the same as anyone else.
In the way Evans describes the city, it is just a city and little more; if anything, it is worse than just a normal city. Wordsworth, however, personifies the city to a certain extent, putting forward the impression that London is a living being, as with “And all that mighty heart is lying still,” on how the city is alive, and sleeping, ready to wake at any moment.
The two poems also have very different attitudes towards the capital, and the different aspects of it. As previously mentioned, Wordsworth puts forward a positive view, while Evans presents a negative. However, there is more than just this.
Wordsworth discusses the city almost as though it were a country landscape, and as one of the most beautiful sights that he had ever gazed upon. He describes it as an exposed place, “Open unto the fields, and to the sky.” Evans, by contrast, gives the feeling of London as a prison. She indicates a mood of entrapment and incarceration for herself and all the other unfortunates that are the residents of the city. She mentions, “The world seems one huge prison-house and court where men are punished at the slightest cost.” This depicts the whole of London as a punishment in itself; it seems that all Londoners are really prisoners that are being held there against their will. It appears also to say that they have not really done much or anything to deserve this harshest of sentences. It is in sharp contrast to Wordsworth’s idea of an ‘open’ and free place. In fact, it contradicts that idea almost directly, with, “No bird can make a shadow as it flies, for all its shadow, as in ways o’erhung by thickest canvas,” illustrating even the sky as a ceiling, part of the vast prison cell that is London.
Wordsworth’s poem is in its attitude somewhat more idealistic than ‘In a London Drawing Room.’ Wordsworth himself lived in the Lake District rather than London itself, so he came there as a tourist rather than a Londoner, as opposed to Evans who lived there as a resident, or indeed a denizen, of the city. The view put across in ‘Upon Westminster Bridge’ can be construed as naïve and unrealistic. It is in so many ways a fragile image that could and would be shattered quickly and easily. He states, “This City now doth, like a garment wear the beauty of the morning.” The way he speaks about the city wearing a ‘garment’ indicates that its current beauty is something that it is only wearing that will soon be doffed and cast aside. The fact that it is the ‘beauty of the morning’ is also telling; the morning is only a short period in the day, and then it is over. He alludes to the capital, “glittering in the smokeless air,” but the very fact that he mentions its smokelessness implies that it might well become smoke-filled in the future. He also says, “Dear God! The very houses seem asleep; and all that mighty heart is lying still.” The ‘very houses’ being ‘asleep’ indicates that it is early enough in the morning for everyone to be still sleeping in bed, and before anyone has woken up to scratch the polish in Wordsworth’s veneer. The ‘might heart lying still’ speaks again about how everyone is asleep, and the ‘living being’ that Wordsworth views the city as is itself not yet awake and belching out smog. Wordsworth may “ne’er” have “saw” or “felt” a “calm so deep,” but it is clear that it is not destined to last.
In conclusion, despite Wordsworth’s being a much more pleasant poem than Evans’, I prefer Evans’ writing because of its gritty reality as opposed to Wordsworth’s idealistic view of an unreal world.
