Comparing and contrasting 'i thank you God' by e.e. cummings with 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge' by William Wordsthworth.

Authors Avatar

Shelley Probert

G.C.S.E. ENGLISH

Comparing and contrasting ‘i thank you God’ by e.e. cummings with ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ by William Wordsthworth

Both are sonnets and talk about landscapes, but in a different way. Cummings’ is unconventional, spontaneous and doesn’t include much punctuation. It starts off by thanking God, which immediately illustrates that the poem is full of praise and joy. It then uses moving pictures to acquire the clearness of his meaning. ‘The leaping greenly spirits of trees’ is clever, because it’s suggesting that trees are literally jumping all over the place. ‘Greenly’ is emphasized by the pronunciation being wrong and it is positive because it implies life, growth and generally good things.

Join now!

Wordsworth’s begins gently. He starts off with; ‘Earth has not anything to show more fair.’ This means that there is nothing more beautiful. He then goes on to say that you must be of really dull nature if such a wonderful sight does not touch you. This poem is more conventional and uses proper punctuation. The wording is not spontaneous and rushed liked Cummings’s. It is first an octlet and then a seslet. It is an iamic pentameter.

The poem by E.E. Cummings is also an iamic pentameter. The poem continues by saying how beautiful the sky is ...

This is a preview of the whole essay