Westminster Bridge

Westminster Bridge.

Westminster Bridge is written by William Wordsworth. The poem depicts a city/city life and is a reflection of the style of romantic movement.

William Wordsworth describes things he sees positively, e.g. “earth has not anything to show more fair”. Which means he likes to look at things his way, which is to look at the beautiful side of things. It creates pleasurable passages that are 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 readers that sense of awe that was felt by William Wordsworth whilst gazing upon the view of London and this 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. He writes as though he appreciates the rare opportunity to see the real beauty of London. The poem gives you the feeling as if you were part of the poem or the author, sitting on Westminster Bridge admiring the view. In this descriptive poem he goes into the finer details of what he sees and what is around him. He also uses a range of techniques to express his views and portrays London as a majestic city in the morning as the sun shines on the city.

The poem “Westminster bridge” was written by William Wordsworth in 1802. He lived in the 18th-19th century and had very different views on the world even though he was a romantic composer and as he explains what the London life is like, he gives very different opinions of what he sees around him. The poem depicts a city in London and the city life there. The poet belonged to the romanticism movement and his poem is a reflection of the style of this movement.

The poet, William Wordsworth thought romantic imagination was important, it showed extreme rapture.

“Westminster Bridge ...

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The poet, William Wordsworth thought romantic imagination was important, it showed extreme rapture.

“Westminster Bridge follows the structure of an Italian sonnet, which has 14 lines. The poem starts with “earth has not anything to show more fair”.

This shows that Wordsworth’s appreciation of London is exaggerated. He is comparing a normally busy city to something naturally beautiful, and the word “earth” is suggesting the city has natural qualities and Wordsworth is stating how “fair” it compares to anything else.

The poem starts with saying that the city London is very beautiful and nothing compares to the beauty of it. The next line tells us that someone would have to be dull if they couldn’t see the beauty. It also moves the poet, just the sight of it at it’s best, majesty is fit for royalty, explaining why it’s royal.

Wordsworth continues onto the next line, represents trade;

“Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie”.

There’s a lot of entertainment going on there, where London was untouched before industrial revolution, just when everything was pure. On the next line anything can go on there, it’s a big city that it is free and wild. He is tells us the city is clean, there is no pollution and associates it with natural things. Also when you read it in your mind you are filled with a joyful and happy feeling, as it feels pure because of how he explains the poem. All through the poem you realize he is treating the Earth as something precious, only looks at the good things, before anyone touched the world, where there was no such thing as pollution or huge cities or houses.

On the next line he says;

“Never did sun more, beautifully steep”.

Which personifies the sun, never shone more beautifully and sun doesn’t shine on anything.

In the next line he says in London from what he can see there are natural things;

“In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill.”

Which makes you think it is mostly natural and how it should be, beautiful.

As you read the next line you can see it has touched him personally, as he has never felt a calm so deep before.

On the next line;

“The river glideth at his own sweet will:”

Which is saying nothing is going to stop it, no pressure on it, gliding along calmly, that it has it’s own life, natures beat.

William mentions that the houses seem dull compared to the London city on the next line and he starts with the line as if he is praising God.

On the last line it says that the mighty heart is lying still, which says it’s still asleep, calm. The contrast is bringing it from industrial to natural and when he says mighty heart it’s powerful and mighty.

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Prelude.

Whilst Westminster Bridge focuses on the city as a whole, prelude focuses on one area of the city and has a more grim and morbid atmosphere.

Prelude was written by T.S. Elliot and the poem depicts a city life. The poet T.S. Elliot belonged to the modern movement and his poem is a reflection of this style of this movement.

His imagery is sharp and clear and he uses many techniques to achieve this. A clear description of what something is, can be pictured in the mind by his precise use of imagery. "Preludes," deals with spiritually exhausted people who exist in the impersonal, tawdry modern city. "Preludes" impressionistically captures the impoverished spiritual lives of those living in a lonely, sordid, decadent culture. The main theme of the poem can be different depending on how the poem is interpreted but the central themes are the solitude of the female character and the loneliness of the dreary urban landscape. Imagery, metaphor, rhyme and rhythm all combine to reveal these people who are caught in the boring and repetitive rituals of waking, eating, working, and sleeping.

The poem starts with; “The winter evening settles down” - as soon as you read it you picture the poem as being miserable throughout. Compared with the previous poem, Westminster Bridge starts with calmness and tranquillity, showing the beauty of the poem, so from the beginning you know the poems are not going to be alike. Throughout the second poem his words are described as a more depressing and bleak view, where Westminster Bridge displays a more vibrant and colourful vocabulary. Also in Prelude the writing is more random and has a lack of punctuation, which means there are no endings to his sentences.

The poem I prefer is Westminster Bridge as it is full of excellent imagery creating an optimistic tone and view of London. It also gives a beautiful theme throughout the poem which makes it pleasant to read, and I like the way he talks about London when he says the nature and beauty of it, as if anything can be achieved there. Just the first line reflects this; “ Earth has not anything to show more fair:” It has a certain calmness about it from the very beginning, and you already want to read on. I think this line works really well, because from the very beginning it traps you to make you want to continue.