london + composed upon westmin
How do Wordsworth and Blake use Language to convey their two different views about London in "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge", and "London"? Both of these poems were written at around the turn of the nineteenth century to illustrate the authors' views on the city of London. At this time, the industrial revolution was underway and some people were living in very poor conditions sue to vast growth in the population. Blake writes about the negative side to London, whereas Wordsworth creates a Positive image of the city. Wordsworth and Blake use language in many different ways to describe the city of London. Both authors use structure to emphasis words within the poems. William Blakes 'London' is written in four, four line stanzas. Each line of each verse has the same number of syllables; this creates a kind of mechanical effect when reading the poem. It also uses alternate line rhyming which emphasises the last word of each line and the poem's repetitive rhythm and structure creates a monotonous effect which would be mirroring the lives of the people in London that he is talking about. Each verse of the poem talks about a different aspect of London that William Blake disliked, he clearly found it a very unpleasant place to
In my opinion, to give people the impression of it as 'calm' even in 'the beauty of the morning' is an extremely misleading thing to do. Blake wanted people to know how appalling and dirty the city was underneath whereas Wordsworth wanted to tell everyone statuesque and breathtaking the city was from a distance. William Wordsworth talks of London as 'all bright and glittering' which gives the idea of London being very bright and colourful, even though the colour is not directly mentioned; this makes the poem very light and cheerful. Wordsworth's poem was written as an Italian sonnet, which are normally associated with love which could be portraying the love he felt for the city. He talks of the 'Infant's Cry' and 'The cry of every man' which is what gives the poem its gloomy depressing factor. When entwined with Wordsworth referring to London as the 'Mighty heart' it all adds to his idea of London being the heart of England. The only mention of sound in Wordsworth's poem is when he says 'Silent, bare'. Wordsworth's poem also seems to flow when read, the complete opposite to Blake's; this is by his use of enjambement and careful selection of words at the end of each line. He uses images such as 'Marks of weakness, marks of woe' to show that the people of London were marked by their poverty both physically because of lack of food; the 'weakness', and mentally because of the suffering; the 'woe'. He also uses explanation marks on particular words to show the depth of his feelings. He talks about aspects such as 'the beauty of the morning' as these best describe what he could see from Westminster Bridge. Blake also uses metaphors such as 'The mind forged manacles I hear. Another oxymoron used to great effect is that of the "youthful harlot" which is talking of how the prostitutes of the time were still in their youth and should not have been doing what they were. Blake talks of the 'blackened church which could be interpreted in two ways; that the church is physically black because of the pollution in the city or it could also be interpreted as metaphorically speaking of the church as black because they are not helping the poor as they should and the 'blackening' represents evil. Blake and Wordsworth's poems are both written from a first person perspective, however Blake uses this to describe the 'people' in London; 'every face I meet', whereas Wordsworth uses it to describe London as a 'thing'; 'Ne'er saw I'.
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