A Comparison of London by William Blake, and Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 by William Wordsworth

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A Comparison of London by William Blake, and Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 by William Wordsworth Both "London" by William Blake, and "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802" by William Wordsworth are written about London, and were written within ten years of each other, but both have contrasting views of what they believe London is like. They express their ideas by using different poem styles and techniques. They are both very effective and create vivid images in the reader's mind. "London" has a strong rhythm, which stresses the last word of each line. This emphasis affects the way in which the poem is read, and stresses on the words with the most importance, for example "weakness" and "woe". This helps the reader understand the poem and helps create images in their minds. The rhyme scheme of ABAB etc. is also simple, and emphasizes how everything is controlled, or measured. In "London" everything is said to be controlled or "chartered", which is shown to be wrong. It is said that the most natural thing in London, the Thames, is also chartered. It also portrays an image of poverty, as everything is owned by the cities institutions, and borrowed by the people of the city. The repletion of "chartered" emphasizes how unnatural it is. It is also shown that every person in London is unhappy, or is suffering. He says that in "every face" he meets he sees "marks of weakness, marks of woe." This makes the reader believe that it is an easy thing to notice, and London has in some way affected the way in which people look. This is used to show how bad London is that it can actually affect people in that ... ... middle of paper ... ...on of death, blood or plagues, so there is nothing to disrupt the peaceful image. These two poems, both about London are complete contrasts to each other. "London" describes London as a bad place, and "Westminster Bridge" describes it as a good. "London" focuses on the people of the city and "Westminster Bridge" focuses on the view. But they both believe that the city of London can affect you in some way, either good or bad. I preferred the poem "London" as it gave a more realistic view of London, and I am able to relate to the idea of pollution in the city, as that is what it is like now. I also found it more interesting as it told me about the people in the city, not just of the views. Also "Westminster Bridge" seems very unrealistic now as London is a very built up area and I believe it is not very attractive.

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