Compare and contrast Blake and Wordsworth’s view of London Essay

The poets Blake and Wordsworth both wrote poems about England’s capital city, London. The poets themselves each came from different backgrounds which may have influenced their view of London. Wordsworth was born and brought up in the Lake District and spent the majority of his life there, which may have led him to concentrate on the natural features of London. In contrast Blake was more aware of the industry and poverty of the capital City. He had lived all his life in London, receiving little formal schooling and even witnessing the death of his brother from consumption. Wordsworth’s poem â€Å"Composed upon Westminster Bridge† presents a calm and relaxed view looking across the water and the city. He writes about what he sees and views London as a majestic royal palace. Wordsworth reflects upon his subject with deep felt emotion, seeing it as a spiritual place of peace. â€Å"Dull would be the soul who could pass by, a sight so touching in its majesty†. He describes a special morning when the city seems to be asleep and is in awe of the tranquillity â€Å"never saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!†. Wordsworth is therefore commenting on the natural beauty that he sees rather than the daily life behind this scene. In contrast Blake’s poem is entitled â€Å"London†. Talking directly about the city itself it is the account of a person walking down the street saying what he sees. He is more concerned with the people who make up the City. Instead of seeing beauty he sees pain in the emotions of the people he meets. â€Å"In every cry of every man†. Blake concentrates on the oppression and poverty of the city. He blames the Church and authorities for their lack of attention and care for the people of London. â€Å"Every blackening Church appals†. The tone of the poem shows a lack of awareness; some safe inside while pain goes on outside, â€Å"and the hapless soldier’s sigh runs in blood down Palace walls†. In keeping with this pessimistic view, Blake’s poem is structured in a methodical and measured tone. It is written to a steady beat in four stanzas. This has the feel of a walking pace as he wanders around the city viewing its misery. Blake uses repetition to emphasise his point â€Å"in every cry, in every voice†. It is a formal bleak approach giving the bare facts as he sees them. Wordsworth’s poem is altogether more flamboyant. As a ‘romantic’ poet he writes this poem in the form of a sonnet. This style is mainly used in ‘love’ poetry. This structure emphasises the way Wordsworth concentrates on the physical aspects Wordsworth views around him. One line flows into another in an informal way. It is descriptive and reflective but does not attempt to look beyond the outward appearance â€Å"all bright and glittering in the smokeless air†. Wordsworth as a rich man, the son of a lawyer, views London on face value. He looks down upon the city from his lofty position unaware of the poverty below. His tone is full of grandeur â€Å"earth has not anything to show more fair†. He feels moved in his spirit and in harmony with his environment. Wordsworth’s tone is full of wonder, focusing on the magnificent buildings and seeing the city itself as a living being full of emotion. Blake expresses his feelings of frustration and sadness. He describes â€Å"chartered† streets and â€Å"chartered† Thames, which emphasises how everything has been taken over and oppressed. He comes from a lower middle class background; the son of a hosier and the tone of this poem expresses his awareness of the poverty around him â€Å"marks of weakness, marks of woes†. This sadness turns to aggression as the poem proceeds, criticising the Church and even the corruption of marriage. â€Å"And blights with plagues the marriage hearse†. There is a hopelessness and desperation expressed within this poem. Blake refers to â€Å"mind-forged manacles†, the metaphorical chains in which the people’s minds are held. This is typical of the negative images used throughout. The one beat rhythm and child-like tone emphasises the steady march towards an inescapable fate. This language underlines the lack of control which people have, their lives grinding out a pre-set pattern. Everything is â€Å"owned† – each chartered street. Even the Church is â€Å"blackening†, sinful, cruel, with a lack of purity and care. The oxymoron â€Å"marriage hearse† shows the conflict within society – the hypocrisy of marriage whilst poverty encourages prostitution to flourish â€Å"the youthful harlot’s curse†. The words are stark and shocking, exaggerating the problem to gain our attention â€Å"blasts the new-born infant’s tear†. The language used by Wordsworth is full of splendour â€Å"never did the sun more beautifully steep†. He paints pictures with his words, using the images of the â€Å"shining sun†, the â€Å"gliding river† the â€Å"beauty of the morning†. He extends a simile of the city by personifying it as clothed in sleep. â€Å"The city now doth like a garment where the beauty of the morning, silent, bare†. Wordsworth creates a feeling of awe and wonder at the beauty of creation. He uses the metaphor of the city like a â€Å"mighty heart lying still†. The sounds evoked by Wordsworth poem are very peaceful and calm â€Å"the river glideth†, â€Å"the morning silent†. In contrast Blake uses sharp sounds which are onomatopoeic in nature – â€Å"blasts†, â€Å"curse†, â€Å"cry†. He uses a strong heavy rhythm emotive of the oppression felt with repetitive force â€Å"and mark in every face I meet, marks of weakness, marks of woe†. The tone of Wordsworth’s poem is soft and lilting â€Å"a sight so touching†, â€Å"a calm so deep†. This is set against the harsh cry of Blake’s London. The approach used by these two writers promotes a different response from the reader. Wordsworth’s flowery imagery encourages a warm view of London. He is optimistic in his approach, concentrating as he does upon the immediate sights and sounds of a peaceful morning scene. Blake however conjures up a feeling of misery for the plight of the people of London locked in a prison of poverty which he blames on the â€Å"establishment† who have no care for their situation. Blake concentrates on social injustice, perhaps borne out of his own upbringing, whilst Wordsworth seems unaware of anything but the natural beauty of the environment and not its inhabitants. Two seemingly different views of one city seen from varying perspectives.