William Wordsworth, in this poem, creates many positive images using various techniques. He describes London as ‘all that mighty heart is lying still,’ concentrating on the metaphor, this tells the reader that Wordsworth feels London is the centre of the Earth and is extremely powerful.
It could be viewed that as Wordsworth was visiting London, he thought that the city reminds him of a beautiful woman, ‘the city now doth like a garment, wear the beauty of the morning;’ this describes the morning of London again, however he personifies the morning, creating the effect that it is dressed up in expensive overalls. Also the caesura ‘wear the beauty of the morning;’ at the end of the sentence forces the reader to pause and take in the amazing imagery that Wordsworth is re-creating.
William Wordsworth had the confidence and the knowledge to compliment the buildings and architecture, he mentions great buildings and parts of London that were probably the most inspiring pieces of artwork that the world had ever seen in the time that Wordsworth had written this poem. He makes use of the trading talent of London, as he mentions ‘ships’ and at the time trading in Britain was a major industry, and Britain had great success with it. He also realised that ‘towers’ were very powerful in London at that time, as the Tower of London was very much in use and contributing to London’s architectural status. He then refers to ‘Domes’, which in this sense, concentrates on St Paul’s Cathedral, emphasising the religious part of London, creating an image that God is in this beautiful city. To get the idea across of the great architecture, Wordsworth emphasises the amount of great buildings by using a continuous list, ‘Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie,’ this tells us that there are numerous designs. Wordsworth exploited London’s talents and extreme powers. Another way in which Wordsworth refers back to power is when he writes ‘Dear God!’ suggesting that London was created by a greater power, also the exclamation mark re-enforces that idea. The choice of words was exact, Wordsworth chose words that would concentrate and single out one certain thing, ‘splendour’ ‘majesty’ ‘Earth’ because it shows how special and royal London is. ‘Majesty’ describes the city as royal, meaning that London is the most important thing to Wordsworth.
Wordsworth surprisingly doesn’t use alliteration in this poem, however when he uses ‘a sight so touching in its majesty,’ this tells the reader that he is using sibilance to express his excitement.
As you can see Wordsworth concentrates on visual aspects of London, buildings, architecture and the glorious morning. He doesn’t comment on the people surrounding him.
In contrast, Blake’s poem ‘London’ paints a very different picture of the city. Blake describes his time in the city as a dark and desperate experience. From wealth to poverty, this is the description Blake uses to complain against the way the city is governed, almost to say that the wealthier people are to blame for the misfortunes of the poorer people and children.
The reader will realise the strict organisation of the rhyme scheme ‘ABAB’ all the way through this poem. Almost to tell the reader that the strictness correlates with the way London is ran by the government, harsh and desperately controlled. Also it is split up in four quatrains, with each alternate line rhyming. The poem also has a strong and steady rhythm, which compliments the repetition Blake uses in ‘London’ and allows him to put a picture in the readers mind, that Blake is writing the poem as he is walking through the city, to show that he is writing it as he sees it. This also links to the imagery Blake uses as ‘every blackening church appals,’ using a metaphor, it shows the reader the anxiety of Blake to explain the idea that the church of London is sorry for what London has become, and is sorry that they have allowed it to happen.
Sadness was a key title of London in Blake’s eyes, ‘in every cry of every man,’ gives a negative title to London, highlighting the fact that every person is living in this tragic period in London is crying with unhappiness and depression. Repetition of the word ‘every’ allows him to put his point across, that no one can escape the depression and particularly taking effect on every face he notices.
Another way Blake is critical towards London is when he writes, ‘and mark in every face I meet, marks of weakness, marks of woe,’ this defines the idea that everyone he sees has ‘marks’ of weakness, and the word ‘mark’ is very significant, he uses it as a double meaning, firstly, to notice the faces and signs of weakness and secondly, to show us the signs of ‘woe,’ like scratches, meaning that the conditions are poor.
Blake links subjects together that most anger him to show how corrupt London was at the time, he connects the ‘chimney sweepers cry’ with the ‘church’ to address that the church is the cause for the woefulness of the children. This is a great link, as the chimneysweepers were children at that time and they did clean the chimneys in the church. Blake also links ‘Harlots curse’ with ‘marriage hearse’ to show that not even marriage can help the prostitutes and that peoples lives would be ruined by the exploitation of the women.
Blake mentions ‘chartered’ in the first stanza, this gives an over view of the whole poem, charters are rules and regulations, which during Blake’s time were placed all around the city, particularly the Thames. Blake links these two to create an idea of how strict London was during the highly governed city. ‘Near where the chartered Thames does flow,’ tells the reader that these bounds and regulations are destroying the people around them by too much pressure and hardly any freedom.
The unremitting amount of disheartening words creates a very downbeat image to London. ‘Manacles’ which means handcuffs and restraints, but Blake uses an important image, ‘mind-forged manacles’ which fundamentally means that the people of London are restrained in the mind, and not literally handcuffed. London has made them self-possessed. ‘Blights’ another way of saying destroy or ruin, then ‘and blights with plagues the marriage hearse’ must mean that marriages will be ruined and therefore introduces the oxymoron, ‘marriage hearse’ which tells us that if you are married, it wont be long before it is destroyed. And finally ‘hapless’ which obviously means unlucky and unfortunate, which is included in the imagery of the phrase, ‘and the hapless soldiers sigh runs in blood down palace walls,’ which tells us that the unluckiness of the soldiers during the revolution is caused by the place and especially the government. The diction has a tremendous effect on the reader, using these words helps the reader to understand the condition of London at the time.
London was experiencing a time of great unrest, due to the aftermath of the French revolution. Blake decided to exploit the way London was governed during his visit to London, which inspired him to criticize society and political causes strained the people, in everyway; money; which lead to women prostitution, restrictions; which gave people no freedom, and the way people were treated by the government; lead to depression and despair.
Wordsworth also had written his poem at this time, a time of unrest; however, other things had his mind concentrated on, the magnificent buildings and the beautiful London morning, maybe these were the only positives about London during that period of time, but Wordsworth took advantage of those strengths. In a way both poems fill one another’s: Wordsworth visualised London as it had beautiful scenery but didn’t talk about the political issues and the surrounding desperation of the people. On the other hand Blake only situated his thoughts on the government and the people who were in despair, but didn’t comment on the nature of London, probably because his mind was too focused on the terrible state the city was in. On the whole, ‘London’ and ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge’ were both two very different poems in every way.
