Compare how each writer uses language to present his views of London Essay

For many centuries London has been a vast, complex place. Many have described it as the capital of the world, however there are many different views. Some would agree that London is a wonderful place where everyone lives in happiness and peace whereas other would point out that those kind of people are delirious and that it is the dirtiest most corrupt place in England. Two such views were expressed by two poets William Wordsworth in his poem named â€Å"Composed upon Westminster Bridge, 3rd September 1802† and the more political writer William Blake with his poem entitled â€Å"London†. The questions is, ‘Do both poets use language effectively to express their contradictory opinions on London?’ One difference between the two poems is the way each uses enjambrement. Blake’s poem has short, snappy lines perhaps to indicate a kind of overall lethargy among the people while Wordsworth’s poem has long lines which flow into each other to create a smooth and relaxed mood – possibly also to symbolise how he viewed the river of London. One of the interesting aspects of Wordsworth’s and Blake’s poems is their separate ways of describing the river, Wordsworth thinks of it as gliding ‘at his own sweet will’ whereas Blake refers to it as the ‘Charter’d Thames’. Wordsworth sees the river as free and sweet. By using ‘his’, he is personifying the river as if it has a choice. He enhances this by using ‘own sweet will’. Blake calls it Chartered, indicating the complete opposite of Wordsworth’s opinion. Chartered means organised and generally bent to man’s will and this is how Blake sees it. He further develops his opinion by calling it the Thames, calling it by it’s man made name. Blake sees the river as being twisted by man and disliked because of that. Blake and Wordsworth set two very different scenes, Wordsworth uses phrases such as ‘bright and glistening in the smokeless air’ and ‘The beauty of the morning; silent, bare’ to set a scene of calm glistening beauty, to set a scene of a kind of fairy-tale wonderland. Wordsworth shows the reader how the surroundings make him feel by commenting ‘Ne’er I saw, never felt, a calm so deep!’ this gives a further direct calming effect on the reader. Blake, on the other hand, uses the word ‘streets’ twice in context with ‘midnight’ and ‘Charter’d’. His repetition on the word streets is to insinuate that there are streets upon streets, creating a monotonous sameness to everything, his repetition on ‘Charter’d’ strengthens his view of unnaturalness in London. An intriguing observation is that both poets talk of glamorous and gracious buildings, but the context they are mentioned in changes their whole meaning. Wordsworth describes them as being ‘Open unto the fields and to the sky;’ indicating a certain freeness and naturalness, he is saying that buildings can be natural if natural is synonymous with good, as Blake’s man made is synonymous with bad. Blake uses ‘Palace’ with ‘blood’ and ‘Church’ with ‘black’ning’, he is indicating that the people of the Church have gone against it’s morals and the people of the Palace are sending soldiers to their death for unworthy reasons. Blake and Wordsworth set two very different scenes, Wordsworth uses phrases such as ‘bright and glistening in the smokeless air’ and ‘The beauty of the morning; silent, bare’ to set a scene of calm glistening beauty, to set a scene of a kind of fairy-tale wonderland. Wordsworth shows the reader how the surroundings make him feel by commenting ‘Ne’er I saw, never felt, a calm so deep!’ this gives a further direct calming effect on the reader. Blake, on the other hand, uses the word ‘streets’ twice in context with ‘midnight’ and ‘Charter’d’. His repetition on the word streets is to insinuate that there are streets upon streets, creating a monotonous sameness to everything, his repetition on ‘Charter’d’ strengthens his view of unnaturalness in London. Both writers enhance their scenery by hinting at colours to set a more vivid picture. ‘Blood’, ‘midnight’, ‘black’ning’, are all words used by Blake, suggestions of the colour red and black which create a gloomy surrounding. Red (blood) as in anger and black to suggest darkness, sorrowfulness and endlessness. Wordsworth suggests colour with a more subtle method using ‘Never did the sun more beautifully steep’ he hints at gold and blinding white colours, and also at cool shade coming from the buildings. Wordsworth’s rhyme scheme is planned out as a love sonnet (a b b a a b b a c d c d c d), whereas Blake repetitive and simple rhyme scheme ( a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b). Wordsworth rhyme scheme is writing a love sonnet about London whereas Blake’s rhyme scheme evokes a boring repetitiveness yet again synonymous with how Blake views London. The final difference mentioned in this essay is that whereby Blake mentions quite a few different groups of people such as ‘Harlot’, ‘Soldier’, ‘Chimney Sweep’, ‘Infant’ – all unfortunate groups bar the infant which is mentioned in an unfortunate context repetitively – Wordsworth mentions no people but instead personifies the river (‘The river glideth at his own sweet will’), the city (‘This city now doth like a garment wear’, ‘The very houses seem asleep!’) and the sun (‘In his first Splendour’). Wordsworth, whilst making it evident that there is no one around but himself, is saying the city, the river and the sun are all entities of which he has just met and thinks highly of them. In conclusion, both poets are high-quality writers who know how to use language effectively to enhance their views. Although Blake is a deeper, darker and more political writer and his poem seems to be the better of the two, Wordsworth poem does have complexity going to a slightly deeper level than Blake’s but it seems naive and idealistic. Blake uses simple rhyme schemes and repetition to develop his opinion but Wordsworth uses a more complex rhyme scheme whilst subtly personifying parts of the city. With that said, both artists were good at what they did and both can use language to successfully articulate their attitudes toward London.