Comparing the Poets Use of Language To Present Their View...

Comparing the Poets Use of Language To Present Their View of London in Composed Upon Westminster Bridge by Wordsworth and London by Blake London was, is and undoubtedly always will be, a city of enormous interest and controversy, especially for those employed in the field of writing. The two poems, Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, 1802, by William Wordsworth and London, 1794, by William Blake, demonstrate this through their opposing views. The intention of both William Blake and William Wordsworth was to portray their own deeply felt views of London in their poems. They exhibit contrasting perceptions of the city based upon their conflicting observations, and, indeed, their very different†¦show more content†¦In the first verse, Blake presents himself in the first person, thereby increasing the immediacy of tone and dramatic effect of this impassioned account. Blake recounts how he strolls through each charterd street by the charterd Thames. The word charterd implies boundaries and restriction of the wrong kind. He generalises and exaggerates by saying that in every person there are signs of weakness and woe. The repetition of the word mark(s) in the first stanza conveys a sing-song tone, but this is ironically deployed in relation to the theme, which is not at all lyrical or pleasant. He uses mark(s) three times in the first stanza: first in line three to mean notice, and then twice in line four, an enjambed line, to mean actual despoliation caused by the weakness and woe. This rapacious idea is continued in stanza two, itself of faster pace, where one almost hears a cacophony of wails: In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban. It is implied that these wails are caused by the entrapment of life in London. The use of the delayed verb, hear, in stanza two, is a means by which the reader is kept waiting to hear how the preceding information should be interpreted. Furthermore, the statements of confusion and disorder create a