The two poems I have mentioned, ‘London’ and ‘Lines composed upon Westminster Bridge’, are both views of London from different perspectives. This is unusual as the two poems were written at around the same time. They reflect the poet’s impression of the city and create two completely different portraits. Wordsworth sees the beauty in everything; he is a pantheist and truly believes in god. He points out the good in London and the bad points become his blind spot. Although writing about the city, Wordsworth is still able to write in his romantic and pastoral style using lines such as, ‘open unto the fields, and to the sky’. Blake on the other hand does the opposite and conveys the exploitation and misery of the city, ‘marks of weakness, marks of woe’. He was born a Londoner and was a republican and with his extreme political views he is unable to see the good in the changing society or the effects of the industrial revolution. Both poems are themed differently, although both about London, ‘Lines composed upon Westminster Bridge’ is Wordsworth's positive view and ‘London’ is Blake’s negative view. I got this impression from the language each of the poets used. Wordsworth uses dignified language such as ‘majesty’ and ‘splendour’ to portray his vision of the city giving us the impression it is a place you’d like to be. Blake uses more common language including swear words to show us the hate he has for the ‘chartered’ city.
Ashley Stanley 11h
Phrases like ‘youthful harlot’s curse’ and ‘blood down palace walls’ amplifies the fact that he hates the city.
Wordsworth’s poem is a petrarchan sonnet, separated into an octet and a sestet. A sonnet is a fourteen-lined poem. An octet is eight lines and a sestet is six lines. Using this structure, Wordsworth was able to use a highly patterned rhyme scheme to link his ideas. In both the octet and sestet the last word of every other line rhymes. In the octet Wordsworth uses enjambement, which is a continuation of lines and in the sestet he uses alternate rhyme. He also uses repetition to reinforce his ideas, first and third line of the sestet he uses the word ‘never’. By repeating himself he develops his ideas and the readers interpretation of them. In the opening octet he uses repetition strongly, as he introduces us to the beauty of the city and his logical way of developing ideas. I believe Wordsworth is trying to portray to people that London is a good place besides all of the problems and trying to encourage people to visit because they should be proud, as it is their Capital city.
Blake uses rhythmic quatrains to set out a general picture and then develops particular aspects or groups of people, which he sees as being to blame for the misery on London’s streets. In each verse he focuses on at least one of the problems of the city and tells of the effects. For example ‘the chimney sweepers cry’ this is showing us that the chimney sweepers are children and then on the next line it mentions the word ‘blackening’ meaning the colour of their souls. Blake criticises a lot of people including the society as a whole, ‘In every cry of every man’, and also mentions children, ‘In every infants cry of fear’. He refers to religion, ‘blackening church appalls’, military, ‘hapless soldier’s sigh’, monarchy, ‘palace walls’, prostitutes, ‘harlot’s’, and marriage, ‘the marriage hearse’. By listing each of the subjects in this way he is trying to display the reality of the problems within the city. I believe Blake is trying to sway people not to like London in the hope that one day it would return to how it was when he liked it.
If I were to pick the poem, which gives the most accurate picture of London, I couldn’t really say. If you were to merge the poems then id say it was perfect. Wordsworth displays the good parts whereas Blake shows the bad. Therefore like anywhere in the world it has its good and bad parts and without one it would not be the same city.
