London By William Wordsworth's London And Westminster Bridge

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London and westminster bridge

The two poems both portray very different images of london. Westminster bridge by William Blake is focused around the beauty of London and the sublime emotions of romanticism. On the other hand, London by william Wordsworth focuses more on the people, society and dark corruption of the city; this fits into the more radical and change side of romanticism. Its written as if a voice is walking London, describing the tragedies they are seeing such as ‘blackening churches’ and ‘infant’s cry of fear’.

The mood and tone of Blake’s poem is written with a deep resentment for the monarchy and restrictions within London. This can be seen in his language when he talks about ‘and the hapless soldier's sigh, runs in blood down the palace walls’. He could be hinting about rebellion, inspired by the French revolution where the monarchy were executed by the poor due to the financial difficulties the country was dealing
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Wordsworth describes london like a living being, this can be seen in the last two lines: ‘Dear god! The very houses seem asleep, And all that mighty heart is lying still!’. Wordsworth exclaims ‘dear God!’ as he wants to share it with God as he believes that the sight he's seeing is worthy of a God. Referring to God also fits into the lexical field of power seen throughout the piece. He also describes the city as a living being, and as it’s sleeping. Sleeping is a state of calm and peace, two things not usually associated with a city, especially a city that's going through the industrial revolution. This could be symbolising how Wordsworth doesn't agree with the industrial revolution and wishes the city was always as calm and peaceful as described in the poem. Furthermore, the word ‘mighty’ reflects the power the city holds and ‘heart’ suggests symbolises it's the heart of the world. Here it is also fitting back into the lexical field of

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