“this city now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare”
The poet describes London as if it is the most beautiful place in the world listing all all its wonders in the one line “ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie”.
The poet uses the temple instead of church to make the city seem holy and more spectacular. The poet compares the city to the countryside, which in people’s mind is always a place of natural beauty but the poet says that London is more beautiful than any place in the countryside.
“Never did sun more beautiful steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill”
The line “ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!” shows his deepest and strongest emotions are revealed when speaking about London. In the next line, he describes the river (Thames) as gliding ‘at his own sweet will’, which shows the river’s grace.
In the last 2 lines, he writes ‘Dear God!’ making his feelings seem more powerful and therefore more credible.
This poem is written from an outsider view, which will be more likely to be able to think of only the good things about a place, as they are less likely to see the flaws or know the place as intensely to see the flaws.
While in ‘London’ by William Blake take a completely different point of view of London it concentrates more on the people who live in London and than the physical aspects of London such as the buildings and their beauty. The poem talks about the misery of people shown on everybody’s face. This poem contains 4 stanzas with alternative rhyming lines. In the first stanza, the poet mentions the ‘chartered street’ and ‘chartered Thames’ meaning that each street is owned and even the river is owned meaning there is no freedom as they both have a corporate identity. While walking through these streets, every face he saw looked weak and sad.
“And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.”
Throughout the 2nd verse, the poet repeats the word ‘every’ many times to emphasise the fact that this pain is inflicted to everybody to lives in London. The ‘infant’s cry of fear’ symbolises its lose of innocence and shows that its not safe.
In the third verse Blake talks about
“How the chimney-sweeper’s cry
Every blackening church appals;”
A chimney sweeper has no childhood as they work from a really young age so they have to be small and fit into a chimney and their job is dangerous so they often have a short miserable life. He mentions a ‘hapless soldier’s sigh’ the soldiers because they are forces into the services by conscription and their deaths are therefore on King’s/Queen’s hand as they died for the country.
In the 4th Stanza is written at midnight where the he describes a prostitute shouting at her newborn baby which she probably didn’t want and will probably abandon it. The prostitute shouting at it is probably the first words the baby hears so it has lost its innocence.
The last line uses an oxymoron because marriage is associated with beginning (of a new life) and hearse is associated with the death. Marriages is also associated with procreation but according to Blake it is also a step closer towards death. The word plaques is used as most prostitutes had STDs from living that life and there was a limited protection in the late 18th century, early 19th century the time these poems were written.
London’ and ‘Westminster Bridge’ both view London in a completely different view one poem concentrates on the life the people who live there while the other concentrates more the physical aspects of the city like the buildings. ‘Westminster Bridge’ and ‘London’ are also set in different times of the day ‘Westminster Bridge’ is set in the morning when the city has a lot of potential as most of the people are still asleep and the 4th stanza of ‘London’ is set at midnight when prostitutes are roam the streets looking for business and night life is in full flow. There are also differences in the some of the things both of the poems say for example in ‘Westminster Bridge’
“The river glideth at his own sweet will” while in ‘London’ “Near where the chartered Thames does flow” that line means that the river has been taken over so has a corporate identity. Another contrast in views is shown in the lines “All bright and glittering in the smokeless air”-‘Westminster Bridge’ and “Every blackening church appals;”- ‘London’ the blackening church refers to the pollution in the city while ‘Westminster Bridge’ states that there is no pollution none at all. The poems are also set at different times of the day to exaggerate their point the 4th Stanza of ‘London’ is set at midnight when the prostitutes are on the streets. In ‘Westminster Bridge’, it is set in the morning when the city can show all its potential.
