Composed Upon Westminster Bridge Dbq Essay

The modern age was derived out of a cruel Industrial Revolution. During the Industrial Revolution era, many cities grew to be based on industrial factories. Even though the Industrial Revolution created many low wage jobs, it also created a tremendous about of pollution and destroyed the environment. People moved away from quaint farming towns, with horses and entire families working on the farm (Document C). These people moved into bustling towns like Manchester (Document D) with smoke stacks lining the town. People thought moving would be for the better, that’s what everybody thought in the beginning. In William Wordsworth’s poem “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802”, he describes a contrasting view on the detrimental effects

of the Industrial Revolution. Wordsworth illustrates the illusion of every idea being a beautiful thing in the beginning, before the chaotic actions take place.
Wordsworth’s use of color imagery suggests how he viewed the Industrial Revolution.

In the poem, Wordsworth describes, “Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie...All bright in glittering in the smokeless air (Wordsworth 6).” The town advanced greatly and in the moment, there isn’t smoke to cloud the beauty of achievement, there isn’t smoke filling the air because the factories hadn’t begun working when he wrote the poem. Even though the morning time is ideal, Wordsworth avoids the harsh reality of the harm the factories are causing. Charles Dickens describes the town as, “unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage (Document A)”. The town had fallen far enough to make people think the worst of the condition (Document A). Alexis de Tocqueville mentions that, “man has turned back almost into a savage.” Civilians have done the same as the towns, and are letting go of the standards they once set (Document B). The connotation of the word savage is significant of the fact that entire cities and its people are reverting back to times of ignorance and loss of connection to their world. In the poem, Wordsworth describes that, “Earth has not anything to show more fair (Wordsworth 1),” in the thought of people only have one planet and that people have done enough damage and taking away the beauty of the

Earth.
Wordsworth also touches on religion in his poem with color imagery. Wordsworth could have chosen to be on the bridge at any time of the day, but he chose to be there in the morning. In the morning, everything is at peace, before something disturbs the peace. Wordsworth mentions, “Open unto the fields, and to the sky...dear God...all that mighty heart is lying still (Wordsworth 7)!” Wordsworth chose to talk about the smoke going to the sky, as the terrible decisions rise to the heavens. This is similar to the Bible when God first creates Adam and Eve, everything is peaceful and nothing bad happens, until Eve convinces Adam to eat an apple. In Wordsworth’s case, Eve resembles the Industrial Revolution and Adam represents the calm and peaceful morning. In the moment, Adam, or people, don’t realize the harm that Eve or the Revolution is causing to the peaceful environment. Charles Dickens described the town buildings as all looking similar, and adds that the Church had the same appearance to it. The Industrial Revolution changed the appearance of towns from peaceful and clean buildings to destroyed and blackened buildings.
In conclusion, Wordsworth viewed the Industrial Revolution as something that is beautiful for a short time and then becomes a destroying monster to cities. The Revolution had become a powerhouse machine that couldn’t be stopped. With the amount of power the factories held, the environment had deteriorated just like the beauty of cities.