The two poets William Blake and William Wordsworth poets who lived roughly in the same time period give or take 10 years or so, but it is ironic how different their perception and portrayal of London is, Blake's poem is his view on London from most of his Life as he was a poor Londoner, Wordsworth's view is of London probably the only time he saw it on a coach journey with his sister. There are a few brief similarities in the two poems "London" by Blake and "Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802"; such as they both discuss the river Thames. But there are great differences within these similarities. The main contrasts in the two poems that relate to each other are in fact the sentences about the river Thames that Blake and Wordsworth use, Blake describes it as '..where the chartered Thames does flow..' and Wordsworth illustrates it as 'the river glideth as his own sweet will'. The two poets have totally different views of this river, Blake's' as a negative man made feature that has had its course mapped out for it, whereas Wordsworth sees it as a positive feature of nature, smooth and flowing, with no human corruption. These two perceptions of the river sum up the poets outlook on the city; negative and positive.
             There are many contrast between the two poems but perhaps the most obvious one is the form of the poems, "London" is formed in four neat stanzas, whereas Wordsworth presents his in his usual way of a sonnet, where there is a shift of focus in line 9 where he goes from describing what he sees to comparing London with the country side, however Blake's shifts the focus a little in each stanza.
             The choice of vocabulary in each of the poems is totally opposite Wordsworth use a cheery and positive semantic field placing words such as beauty, bright, glittering, calm and sweet into his work. While Blake has chosen a depressing negative semantic field in...