UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE:

I was in a casual seat to turn of the pages of the poems, -a poem that suddenly caught my eyes. Not at all been a description so vividly as usual of me, but a speck of only the metaphors to the nature loving poem..
Thanks a lot to upraise me in Web..

1. Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
William Wordsworth, 1770 - 1850

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

[Westminster Bridge is a sonnet. It has fourteen lines. It can be divided into two parts of eight and six
lines. Its rhyme –scheme is that of an Italian sonnet. It rhymes abba: cd, cd, cd.]

2. It was “written on the roof of a coach on my way to France
at about 5-30 or 6-0 in the morning” (Wordsworth)
Before leaving for France, Wordsworth along with his sister
Dorothy stayed in London for a few days. Dorothy has given
the following account in her diary of the morning walks in
London. “July 30, left between 5 and 6 in the morning…A
beautiful morning. The city… St. Paul’s with the river, a
multitude of little boats…made a beautiful sight as we
crossed Westminster Bridge. The houses not overhung by
their clouds of smoke, were spread out endlessly, yet the
sun shone so brightly with such a pure light that th ere was
something like the purity of tone of Nature’s own grand
spectacles.” The poet carried the impression of these

3. morning walks and then gave outlet of his feelings in this
poem.


Wordsworth felt deeply touched by the great beauty of
London at the morning time. The city seemed to be wearing
the garment of morning’s glory. Ships, towers, domes,
theatres and churches stood glittering under the smokeless
sky. The poet had never seen such beauty and calmness in
valleys, rocks or hills. In that profound calmness, the great
city appeared to be lying asleep.
As a poet of Nature, Wordsworth is mainly interested in
Nature’s calm aspects. The fearful and terrifying aspects of
Nature are ignored by him. The picture of London as seen
from the Westminster Bridge in the clear light of the early
morning is calm and placid.
“Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!’’

4. In his description of London in the poem, Wordsworth takes
no notice of the countless people- walking or asleep, happy
or sad-living in the great city.
“This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare”,


RITUPARNA RAY CHAUDHURI .
SELF SETTING and (EDITED) WEB THOUGHTS AND IMAGES, AND WORDS FROM DR.
S.SEN.