Blakes London vs Wordsworths London
The descriptions of London in William Blake’s “London” and William Wordsworth’s “Composed on Westminster Bridge, September 3rd, 1802” are so different that it seems as if the authors are talking about two totally different cities. Blake sees London as a city full of woe with blood running down the palace walls. Blake makes London seem so dark, so sad, so dirty, and so very hopeless. Where Wordsworth sees London as a place of beauty, “A sight so touching in its majesty:” Wordsworth makes us feel that London is a place of hope. ... When William Blake looks at London he sees the many injustices of the world. ... ” Most in London did not prosper from charters and laws of business. It was those that owned the businesses that prospered not the nameless; faceless that Blake encounters in the streets of London. The industrialization of London did not make it the best place for all, but it did make it the best place for those that needed labor desperate for work and who would do that work for not a lot of pay. Trying to have the best life you could and being a working man in London, at this time, did not go hand in hand. Blake sees this industrialization of London polluting the air and streets, robbing children of their youth, and even having a hand in the Church turning it’s back on those that need it most. In Wordsworth’s “Composed upon Westminster Bridge” the view of London is completely different. We are seeing the city of London through Wordsworth’s eyes on this clear sunny early morning, “This City now doth, like a garment, wear/ The beauty of the morning; silent bare,” Through Wordsworth’s eyes the city seems so clean and crisp on this glorious morning, “Never did sun more beautifully steep/ In his splendour, valley, rock, or hill:” This particular morning Wordsworth seems to be seeing London either as he never has or hasn’t in a long time.