Blake and Wordsworth set two very different scenes, Wordsworth uses phrases such as ‘bright and glistening in the smokeless air’ and ‘The beauty of the morning; silent, bare’ to set a scene of calm glistening beauty, to set a scene of a kind of fairy-tale wonderland. Wordsworth shows the reader how the surroundings make him feel by commenting ‘Ne’er I saw, never felt, a calm so deep!’ this gives a further direct calming effect on the reader. Blake, on the other hand, uses the word ‘streets’ twice in context with ‘midnight’ and ‘Charter’d’. His repetition on the word streets is to insinuate that there are streets upon streets, creating a monotonous sameness to everything, his repetition on ‘Charter’d’ strengthens his view of unnaturalness in London.
An intriguing observation is that both poets talk of glamorous and gracious buildings, but the context they are mentioned in changes their whole meaning. Wordsworth describes them as being ‘Open unto the fields and to the sky;’ indicating a certain freeness and naturalness, he is saying that buildings can be natural if natural is synonymous with good, as Blake’s man made is synonymous with bad. Blake uses ‘Palace’ with ‘blood’ and ‘Church’ with ‘black’ning’, he is indicating that the people of the Church have gone against it’s morals and the people of the Palace are sending soldiers to their death for unworthy reasons.
Blake and Wordsworth set two very different scenes, Wordsworth uses phrases such as ‘bright and glistening in the smokeless air’ and ‘The beauty of the morning; silent, bare’ to set a scene of calm glistening beauty, to set a scene of a kind of fairy-tale wonderland. Wordsworth shows the reader how the surroundings make him feel by commenting ‘Ne’er I saw, never felt, a calm so deep!’ this gives a further direct calming effect on the reader. Blake, on the other hand, uses the word ‘streets’ twice in context with ‘midnight’ and ‘Charter’d’. His repetition on the word streets is to insinuate that there are streets upon streets, creating a monotonous sameness to everything, his repetition on ‘Charter’d’ strengthens his view of unnaturalness in London.
Both writers enhance their scenery by hinting at colours to set a more vivid picture. ‘Blood’, ‘midnight’, ‘black’ning’, are all words used by Blake, suggestions of the colour red and black which create a gloomy surrounding. Red (blood) as in anger and black to suggest darkness, sorrowfulness and endlessness. Wordsworth suggests colour with a more subtle method using ‘Never did the sun more beautifully steep’ he hints at gold and blinding white colours, and also at cool shade coming from the buildings.
Wordsworth’s rhyme scheme is planned out as a love sonnet (a b b a a b b a c d c d c d), whereas Blake repetitive and simple rhyme scheme ( a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b). Wordsworth rhyme scheme is writing a love sonnet about London whereas Blake’s rhyme scheme evokes a boring repetitiveness yet again synonymous with how Blake views London.
The final difference mentioned in this essay is that whereby Blake mentions quite a few different groups of people such as ‘Harlot’, ‘Soldier’, ‘Chimney Sweep’, ‘Infant’ - all unfortunate groups bar the infant which is mentioned in an unfortunate context repetitively - Wordsworth mentions no people but instead personifies the river (‘The river glideth at his own sweet will’), the city (‘This city now doth like a garment wear’, ‘The very houses seem asleep!’) and the sun (‘In his first Splendour’). Wordsworth, whilst making it evident that there is no one around but himself, is saying the city, the river and the sun are all entities of which he has just met and thinks highly of them.
In conclusion, both poets are high-quality writers who know how to use language effectively to enhance their views. Although Blake is a deeper, darker and more political writer and his poem seems to be the better of the two, Wordsworth poem does have complexity going to a slightly deeper level than Blake's but it seems naive and idealistic. Blake uses simple rhyme schemes and repetition to develop his opinion but Wordsworth uses a more complex rhyme scheme whilst subtly personifying parts of the city. With that said, both artists were good at what they did and both can use language to successfully articulate their attitudes toward London.
