Thomas Neville

Analyse and Compare “London” by William Blake

and “(Composed Upon) Westminster Bridge” by
William Wordsworth. Which Poem Gives the Most
Effective Portrayal of 18th Century London?

In this coursework, I will be discussing and comparing “London” by William Blake, which was
written in 1794 and “Westminster Bridge” by William Wordsworth, which was written in 1802.

“London” is about how the different people and social classes in London are treated, like the
chimney-sweepers, soldiers and prostitutes, against the disease-ridden background.

“Westminster Bridge” instead focuses on the beauty of London, including the domes,
temples, fields, smokeless air and valleys. He looks at the superficial things which he then
describes as majestic and fair.

At the time that “London” was written, London and the rest of the world were evolving.
Despite the British being at war with the French, the French Revolution was in full swing and
the Industrial Revolution in Britain was gathering momentum.

During these times, London was the centre of the world economy, socially, commercially and
financially, having great wealth since it was fed with the profits from trading with the
Americas and the East and West Indies. At this time, London also reigned supreme in the
matters of the theatre, literature and the arts.

In the 18th century, however, housing conditions were terrible in London. People would be
willing to sleep anywhere, even on the rodent-infested streets, and rooms were extremely
packed for sleeping arrangements.

Even before it was acknowledged that London was dying from the inside, it was estimated
that several hundred thousand Londoners perished from typhoid, cholera, plague and
pestilence.

Bathing and fresh air were greatly feared, and the fact that, from the sixty sewers which were
drained directly into the Thames, six of the nine water suppliers drew their unfiltered drinking
water for the city inhabitants.

The infant mortality rate was 74% in the worst years of the 18th century. Even worse,
perhaps, was the fact that a parent who had beat their child for disobedience (At least that’s
all they had to say for a reason) would not be prosecuted for the child’s death, so long as the
parent claimed it was an accidental side-effect of the discipline.
Thomas Neville

Many of the children in London, orphans especially, worked as chimney-sweepers, and, to

make these children climb the chimneys more quickly, their masters would never hesitate to
set alight stacks of straw under the children’s feet.

Sadly, it wasn’t until 1840 that an Act was passed to end the unemployment of small boys as
chimney-sweeps.

The “London” poem links well with the situation that the “real” London was in at the time
since there were lots of different types of people that were suffering, mostly alone and in
silence. For example, the deaths, jobs, prostitution and grime.

The poem “Westminster Bridge” tells us about all the beautiful things in London, like the
temples, theatres, rivers and valleys. This links with the “real” London because, as said
previously, London was the centre of the world economy, the best in the worlds of theatre,
literature and arts.

As also mentioned a few times already, the poem “London” focuses on a very negative side
of London.

The first stanza shows us that the poem is set in London during a period of mass depression
amongst everyone in the city, everywhere in the city.

The second stanza focuses on how there seems to be no one in London who’s happy,
smiling or laughing. Everyone all over London is unhappy and miserable.

The next stanza highlights the evil and deceit that the different areas of London hiding,
including the small and young chimney-sweeper children, how the church’s morals are
“misplaced” and how, during this crisis, the Royal Family/ Monarchy are to blame.

The last stanza tells us that, at night, as you walk through the dark streets, you can usually
count on hearing a prostitute’s screams, not only in pleasure as they could occasionally be
because she’s giving birth to an illegitimate child. The men who “met up” with these “Ladies
of the Night” would often pick up (and possibly later return the favour to the community of
prostitutes) a many different diseases from these prostitutes, which they would almost
always soon pass on these diseases to their wives, and, if their wife became pregnant after
that, their children too would have a pretty fair chance of being born with a variety of
problems.

I think the poet, William Blake, wrote this poem, “London” so that people who went to visit or
want to know more about London could see that not all of London was as great as they had
been led to believe. A side they might not otherwise have seen or been ignorant to, hidden in
the murky side of London was a much darker and dirtier face of London that did not want to
make known to them.
Thomas Neville

I also believe that this is a protest poem, a cry out for change, directed at the government/
parliament. Although the entire poem could be seen as a way to keep people (immigrants?)
out of London, hence the reason why Blake only focused on the negative side of London.

As I’ve said, “Westminster Bridge” is a lot more positive in the way it portrays the city of
London.

The first stanza starts off the poem by trying to show just how beautiful London is and how
emotional London can make us feel.

The second stanza highlights the different features of London that, to Wordsworth, makes
London so great.

The third and last stanza focuses on how everything in London seems to be alive.

I believe that William Wordsworth wrote this poem in order to draw visitors into visiting the
city and portraying how grateful he is to be a part of such a great and beautiful city. But we
can see that, vice-versa to Blake, Wordsworth has not said anything negative about London,
although that might be because he is not aware of anything bad. However, it might be seen
this way, in the fact that he is only mentioning the positives, so that he could try and
persuade people from other cities, or countries, even, to visit London, perhaps because
London has suffered a social downturn in the decade or so in-between the publication of the
two poems, possibly because of Blake’s negative, dark views on London in his poem.

William Wordsworth’s poem, “Westminster Bridge”, opens with the line, “Earth has not
anything to show more fair:” Wordsworth is saying that he does not feel that there is anything
more beautiful on the whole of Earth than London in the morning, which would be a great
opening and catch to lure a person in to read the rest of the poem.
In the second line, Wordsworth says, “Dull would he be of soul who could pass by”, saying
that he believes that anyone who walks by London without paying much attention would be
very insensitive and unimaginative. He then says in the third line that London is, “A sight so
touching in its majesty:” This makes us believe that, for at least Wordsworth, looking out at
London makes you feel very emotional, or at least makes you feel something, while the word
majesty suggests royalty, which in itself is impressive and awe-inspiring.

The fourth line, “This City now doth, like a garment, wear” is Wordsworth’s first use of
personification, here using it to make it appear that the city of London is wearing clothes, as
if keeping everyone/ everything inside it safe and warm.
Thomas Neville

On the next stanza, the first line, “The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,” tells us that
Wordsworth prefers the city, which he still feels is beautiful, when there are no people about,
as the sunshine covers the city like clothing.

The second line lists some famous or well-respected buildings and other man-made
structures in London, although only buildings and man-made structures from the better side
of London are referenced, for reasons unknown to us. His list is, “Ships, towers, domes,
theatres, and temples lie”

The third line is where Wordsworth starts talking about the more natural side of London,
perhaps a field of some sort located on the edge or around the outside of the border of
London, as Wordsworth says, “Open unto the fields, and to the sky;”.

In the fourth line of the second stanza, Wordsworth says, “All bright and glittering in the
smokeless air”, suggesting that he is still on about the early morning as the factories would
not be open at this time and thus polluting the air. Also, “bright” and “glittering” are strong,
positive adjectives which, although quite common in today’s conversations, are still pretty
powerful descriptive words, and they both also back up my idea that it is early morning as we
can assume he is talking about the stars in the sky.

The final sentence of the second stanza mentions the Sun rising up in the early hours of the
morning, or, as Wordsworth put it, “Never did sun more beautifully steep”. The idea of a
beautiful sunrise after having the rest of the scenery described to me as being so great and
magnificent makes me, at least, feel that the sunrise would be a very romantic and amazing
event to be a part of, enticing me to visit London solely for the sunrise.

In the first line of the last stanza, Wordsworth uses personification to give life to the Sun, and
he also references the nature around London again, as he says, “In his first splendour,
valley, rock, or hill;”. He believes that the sight of the city looks as lovely as when it first
shone on the world at the very start of time, as “first splendour” is a reference to the Garden
of Eden.

The next line has Wordsworth saying, “Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!”. This line is a
lot more personal than most of the poem so far as it is said in first person, making us feel
more connected to Wordsworth.
Thomas Neville

The third line states, “The river glideth at his own sweet will:”, again another use of
personification, although this time for the river Thames. This use of personification makes
the river seem more alive, and makes us feel more emotionally attached to it.

In the fourth line, Wordsworth says, “Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;” and he uses
an exclamation mark to show that he is very emotional and in awe about this, while his final
use of personification, this time for the houses, makes it seem like even the houses are alive
in London, as well as the fact that all life in London seems to have a rhythm to it.

The final line of Wordsworth’s poem says, “And all that mighty heart is lying still!”, which
suggests that London is one big, strong heart, which loves and cares for its people, just like
any human would. This makes it more inviting for visitors to come to experience London for
themselves while also saying that London is the heart of the country, at the very least, as he
could also be referencing the fact that London was the centre of the world economy.

“London”, by William Blake, opens with these first two line, “I wander through each chartered
street, near where the chartered Thames does flow,”. This shows us that William Blake is
writing this poem in the first person, which instantly makes us feel like we can connect with
him easier, while also making the poem less formal and more personal to us and him alike.
The use of “chartered” is also an act of repetition, something that Blake uses a many a time
in this poem, but it makes us think that the things he’s describing are not only official or
important, but perhaps they belong to the rich and famous, or in this case, are where all the
rich or famous people live or “hang out”.

The next and final two lines from the first stanza are the following, “And mark in every face I
meet, marks of weakness, marks of woe.”. The use of “mark/marks” has a double meaning
as it could be used as in Blake has spotted/seen/noticed something or that it is a mark like a
sign. Repetition is used again here in the second line as Blake uses the structure, “Marks of
w.....” twice, which can also be argued as a form of alliteration.

The first three lines of the second stanza, “In every cry of every man, in every infant's cry of
fear, in every voice, in every ban,”, again uses repetition in the word every, which is used for
effect to emphasise that everyone, everywhere, in London is affected.

The last line of the second stanza goes like this, “The mind-forged manacles I hear:”, which
again uses alliteration by using the letter “m” twice. Also, “mind-forged manacles”, meaning
Thomas Neville

“chains of/ from the mind”, is a metaphor for fear, misery, depression, which the people of
London are all feeling as they believe they are trapped, or closed in, by their lives and
surroundings.

The next stanza has the first two lines saying, “How the chimney-sweeper's cry, every
blackening church appals,”. From the fact that the chimney sweeper is crying, we can
assume that they are young children, and the second line tells us that it’s appalling that the
church allows their suffering. The word “blackening” is a double meaning, as it could be
taken literally as soot from the sweepers, or it could be taken as the church is black-hearted
and stained.

The third line, “And the hapless soldier's sigh” uses alliteration with the letter “s” and
suggests that the soldier is unlucky or at the mercy of fate, while the last line, “Runs in blood
down palace-walls.” suggests that the royal family/ monarchy are to blame for these
injustices. The use of the word “blood” gives a very dramatic feel to the poem with a strong
visual image as it links to the death of the soldiers who died for their country, which now
appears to be in vain as the city and country seems to be going downhill extremely fast.

The final stanza starts off with the line, “But most, through midnight streets I hear”, which
gives us the feeling that the area of London that William Blake is describing is dark and
shady, which would definitely not be a good place to take a stroll down during the very early
hours of the morning.

The second and third lines go like this, “How the youthful harlot's curse, blasts the new-born
infant's tear,”. The word “youthful” suggests that the prostitutes (harlots) are very young,
perhaps even under the age of eighteen, while the word “curse” could be viewed as another
way of mentioning sexually transmitted diseases. Also the word “blasts” suggests that these
“curses” are damaging, or even destroying, the precious lives of newborn babies and small
children.

The last line, “And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse.”, uses an oxymoron with the
idea of a “marriage-hearse”, which are put together for effect, suggesting that the marriages
to not last long as many of the couples are dying, perhaps from illnesses like the plague, or
from STDs from prostitutes, if their partners are unfaithful to them, also making the people of
London look very evil, untrustworthy and two-sided.
Thomas Neville

Sadly, in the end, I did not enjoy either poem, as I felt too distant from the subject at hand,
London, both before reading either poems and after reading them both. However, I will say
that I preferred the structure and language features of “London”, by William Blake, as it
seemed much more intellectual and thought-out.

I also can’t decide on which of the two poems best describe the conditions of London at this
time, the end of the 18th century and the start of the 19th century.

In the end, I came to the conclusion that both poems could be equally as right or wrong in
how they’ve portrayed London as William Blake described the evil, negative side of London,
mostly focusing on the different people, organisations and groups, while William Wordsworth
instead focuses on the natural beauty, or allure, that London has on him.

Now, both have described completely different sides of London, which is why I believe that
neither poem is a more accurate description of London.

I believe I might also have been put off the subject by the fact that I believe I’d already
completed this piece of coursework the previous year, although that was comparing two
different poems, “Cousin Kate” and “The Seduction”.

I felt that my time might have been better spent completing my final draft of that Cousin
Kate/ Seduction essay, which I already had a solid foundation on and this excuse that this
London-comparison coursework could itself be compared to the Cousin Kate/ Seduction
coursework to see which essay had the highest mark so that I could eventually put that
higher-marked coursework up to be sent forward to be graded for my GCSE, as I could just
have been told what mark I’ve got from my first draft of the Cousin Kate/ Seduction
coursework (as I believe this coursework is a first draft), been told how I can improve my
grade, and then finally complete another draft of my Cousin Kate/ Seduction essay, possibly
keep drafting until I received a satisfactory A*, or even an A.

And on that note, you might be wondering why not all the points needed to be included from
the check-list? Well, the reason for this is that I felt I didn’t have enough time to finish the
coursework in the time limit dictated to the class and I, hence the low list of people who
completed the coursework on time. I also know that I stated that I had not brought it in
because, “I had not finished it”, implying that I felt that I had not had enough time to
complete the work. Then, although I appreciate that it might have been a little late and rude
Thomas Neville

of me to ask, but I asked for extra time and that was refused. But I’m sure that when the time
comes to making a final draft, I’ll have enough time to add the things that I missed in order to
get a better grade for the final draft.

Now, back to my main point. Instead, I feel that I’ve already done the same piece of
coursework twice, with the almost-guaranteed promise of a final draft of this piece of
coursework, possibly of the Cousin Kate/ Seduction piece of coursework too, when I could
have easily continued on my effort-filled attempt at comparing the poems of Cousin Kate and
The Seduction, while half the class could either decide to also try comparing the same
Cousin Kate and The Seduction poems or trying this London comparison coursework.

Of course, this all would not have happened if the classes were not experimented with,
separating boys and girls like a scientist would use a Degus (rat/ hamster-like creature that
Mr. Ambler has) as a test subject. An experiment, which I, and many single-minded,
intelligent people, like myself, feel has had disastrous effects/ consequences for both the
male and female students.

Finally, thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope that you take everything I have said
in this essay into consideration.

I believe it was Forrest Gump who said, “And that’s all I have to say about that.”