William Wordsworth's poem Upon Westminster Bridge is a sonnet, it creates a pleasurable passage that is easily read and understood while still accessing a great deal of emotion and image form. It

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Liang Chen

William Wordsworth’s poem Upon Westminster Bridge is a sonnet, it creates a pleasurable passage that is easily read and understood while still accessing a great deal of emotion and image form. It gives different readers, many different interpretations of what the poem is about, the images and emotions felt, yet still maintaining the secret of what Wordsworth himself would have had in mind about the meaning of the poem.

Upon Westminster Bridge creates for the reader that sense of awe that was felt by William Wordsworth whilst gazing upon the view of London and this awe can also be felt by the readers themselves. This sense of awe can be seen from the very beginning of the passage, “Earth has not anything to show more fair:” just the language used is like a spell cast upon the reader giving off a sense of calmness and tranquillity. This feeling in the language is reflected in the atmosphere of the time in which the poem is set, early morning, just as the sun is starting to show above the horizon. Where the citizens of London are still in bed, the busy city still asleep and motionless.

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The impression of religious symbology can also be felt in this poem. “Dull would he be the soul who could pass by…” the word “soul” in this line gives the reader the impression of a reverential tone. Soul is a word that is used mostly in a religious context and having it in the poem lets off the feeling of the peace, and heavenliness. “Dear God! the very houses seem asleep…” this can be taken as an emphasis on the reverential tone of the poem. “Dear God!” this reference to God fits in and confirms the “soul” and heightens the ...

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