Analysis
Wordsworth's sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 falls into the category of Momentary Poems. The poet is describing what he sees, thinks and feels on a specific day at a specific moment. Had September 3, 1802, been a dismal day of rain, fog or overcast skies, we would not have this lyric to enjoy. Fair weather is often an inspirational awakening to the muse of poetry.
Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy had traveled to London to take a ship to France, where Wordsworth's mistress Annette Vallon was living with the ten-year-old Caroline, whom Wordsworth had sired but had never seen. The coach taking him and his sister to the seaside dock paused on the Westminster Bridge that crosses the Thames. Looking back in the brilliant morning sunlight at the sleeping city of London, the poet composed his Petrarchan sonnet in a tone peaceful and serene.
He presents a panorama of London, commencing with two metrically irregular lines of 5 accents. I will convey my scansion by placing the stressed syllables in capitals.
EARTH HAS not ANYthing to SHOW more FAIR:
DULL would he BE of SOUL who could PASS BY
(And then lines of regular iambic pentameter:)
A SIGHT so TOUCHing IN its MASterY;
This CITy NOW doth, LIKE a GARment, WEAR
The BEAUty OF the MORning: SIlent, BARE,
The spondaic substitution, or successive accented syllables, lends emphasis to the emotional feeling that strikes the poet. Here is a romantic who spends most of his time in the Lake Country, in fields of daffodils, exulting in an urban morning cityscape, unconcerned with the getting and spending that he decries elsewhere.
The second quatrain generalizes about the skyline shapes without detailing them. The poet has personified London through his use of the simile "like a garment" and the verb "wear." The catalog of man-made structures includes "Ships, towers, domes, theaters, and temples." Paradox intrudes as the garment worn by the city is bright and glittering sunshine that does not conceal, clothe, or protect but emphasizes bare beauty.
The next personifications are of the sun and the river. The verb "steep" in the opening of the sestet can support a variety of definitions including cleansing, softening, bleaching, bathing, imbuing. The personified morning sun performs these actions on "valley, rock, or hill."
The magic performed by the sun on the City, while the Thames "glideth at his own sweet will," induces in the poet a feeling of calm, as though the personified houses were peacefully asleep, and the mighty, throbbing heart of the metropolis is wrapped in stillness.
"Dull would [they] be of soul" who do not feel the power and excitement of this lyric.
Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy had traveled to London to take a ship to France, where Wordsworth's mistress Annette Vallon was living with the ten-year-old Caroline, whom Wordsworth had sired but had never seen. The coach taking him and his sister to the seaside dock paused on the Westminster Bridge that crosses the Thames. Looking back in the brilliant morning sunlight at the sleeping city of London, the poet composed his Petrarchan sonnet in a tone peaceful and serene.
He presents a panorama of London, commencing with two metrically irregular lines of 5 accents. I will convey my scansion by placing the stressed syllables in capitals.
EARTH HAS not ANYthing to SHOW more FAIR:
DULL would he BE of SOUL who could PASS BY
(And then lines of regular iambic pentameter:)
A SIGHT so TOUCHing IN its MASterY;
This CITy NOW doth, LIKE a GARment, WEAR
The BEAUty OF the MORning: SIlent, BARE,
The spondaic substitution, or successive accented syllables, lends emphasis to the emotional feeling that strikes the poet. Here is a romantic who spends most of his time in the Lake Country, in fields of daffodils, exulting in an urban morning cityscape, unconcerned with the getting and spending that he decries elsewhere.
The second quatrain generalizes about the skyline shapes without detailing them. The poet has personified London through his use of the simile "like a garment" and the verb "wear." The catalog of man-made structures includes "Ships, towers, domes, theaters, and temples." Paradox intrudes as the garment worn by the city is bright and glittering sunshine that does not conceal, clothe, or protect but emphasizes bare beauty.
The next personifications are of the sun and the river. The verb "steep" in the opening of the sestet can support a variety of definitions including cleansing, softening, bleaching, bathing, imbuing. The personified morning sun performs these actions on "valley, rock, or hill."
The magic performed by the sun on the City, while the Thames "glideth at his own sweet will," induces in the poet a feeling of calm, as though the personified houses were peacefully asleep, and the mighty, throbbing heart of the metropolis is wrapped in stillness.
"Dull would [they] be of soul" who do not feel the power and excitement of this lyric.