Tayseer Abdul Majeed ENN102E – Assignment 01

Student No. 35287314

Seasons Come To Pass

Essay on the sonnet “Composed Upon Westminster
Bridge”

By Wiliam Wordsworth (1770 – 1850)

Table of Contents

Table of Contents................................................................................................1
Question 1: Describing the difference in meaning between the two sections of
the poem. ..........................................................................................................2
Question 2: Explaining how two images in the poem compare the city to
nature. ............................................................................................................... 3
Question 3: Exploring emotions evoked and reasons for the speaker’s
amazement of the city’s quietness in lines 13-14. .............................................4
Question 4: Essay exploring the way the sonnet represents the city to the
reader. ............................................................................................................... 5
References:.........................................................................................................8
Iain McCalman et al. 2001, An Oxford Companion to The Romantic Age: British
Culture 1776-1832 (Paperback). Oxford University Press. .................................8

8
Tayseer Abdul Majeed ENN102E – Assignment 01
Student No. 35287314

Question 1: Describing the difference in meaning

between the two sections of the poem.

The poem by Wordsworth is a romantic fourteen-line sonnet divided into an eight line octave and a
six-line sestet of the following rhyme schemes: ‘ABBAABBA’ ‘CDCDCD’. It is a typical romantic
depiction of nature at its very best, a worship of nature that the romantics, and especially
Wordsworth, were renowned for. The first part of the sonnet, the octave, gives great detail about
the natural beauty of London in the lucidity of the early morning. The city is physically described in
detail, considering its architecture as part of nature itself, deserving equal praise and the speaker’s
awe. The outline of modern architecture such as ‘‘ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples’’ at
that heavenly hour, cloaked with a glittering garment of purity, seem to have the metropolitan city’s
landmarks blend homogenously with the natural surroundings of the city, not contradicting them,
despite them being man-made. The sestet and second part of the sonnet, there is a change of
mood whilst yet admiring the city, the focus of the speaker is internalized introducing sensual
description, by imagery and personification of the city to natural phenomena such as the sun, earth
and river. The vivid imagery used to describe London exercises the imagination to create a sense
of sight to picture the city’s depicted natural phenomena at work during that hour in the early
morning through the speaker’s eyes. Unlike the preceding octave, there are no man-made objects
in the description within the sestet; only the appreciation of God’s nature and the speakers
emotional reflection in response to it.

8
Tayseer Abdul Majeed ENN102E – Assignment 01
Student No. 35287314

Question 2: Explaining how two images in the poem

compare the city to nature.

Imagery is used in the poem as one of other poetic devices to bring the scenery more to life, to be
able to experience it as seen and felt first hand by the speaker himself. Two hero characters of the
sonnets imagery are of the ‘sun’ and ‘river’. Both are natural phenomena that the speaker clearly
considers to be divine. While they are admired for being the very natural things that they are, they
are also characterized and described while in motion, giving a powerful sense of life and visual
experience to the reader. The image of the sun is powerful, as it is referred to as “he”, with actions
described by diction such as “steep”.

The sun’s imagery describes the subtle yet bright early rays of light over the empty silent city, the
beauty which is continuous at this hour over the country and nature. Line 9 reads:
“Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley rock or hill”
portraying the soft illumination of sunlight into the steep valley and city that sense the warmth of the
dawn. The word “never” seems as if the speaker is fascinated by the city at dawn more than under
the rays of day’s sun that he has never experienced such beauty or warmth, despite the everyday
visibility of the sun.

Also, as the poem is “Composed upon Westminster Bridge”, it calls for another imagery and
fascination by the river which flows beneath it. In one line the motion and sense of liberty is
conveyed by how the river “glideth at his own sweet will” personified as a man of both will and
freedom. The repetition of “never” twice in the preceding line 11 of the sonnet: “Ne’er saw I, never
felt, a calm so deep!” implies having experienced natural beauty beforehand, yet nevertheless, not
comparable to the ‘unbelievable’ beauty, calmness and liberty of nature.

8
Tayseer Abdul Majeed ENN102E – Assignment 01
Student No. 35287314

Question 3: Exploring emotions evoked and reasons for

the speaker’s amazement of the city’s quietness in
lines 13-14.

The sonnet ends with two exclamations in the last two lines at the status of the houses, the
residential aspect of the city now described at the end being asleep. “The very houses” emphasizes
a parallel tranquility of the houses, that usually are buzzing with people, to that of nature’s peace
during that moment at dawn. It is a build-up of the earlier mentioned “smokeless air” sky in line 8,
lacking the smoke emitting chimneys of these houses, hence at that clear state, “the very houses”
are contributing to and completing the serene picture of London. The exclamation of “Dear God!” is
a call of awe at that silent peaceful picture. His belief in God is identified with the utterance of the
expression whilst marveling at the visual and auditory calmness as if feeling divine presence while
perceiving the houses as a living being in deep slumber. His worship of God is as holy as is nature
is sacred to him.

A paradox in lines 13 and 14 is at work with the denotation of usually busy activity of the houses
within this heavily populated city at a time of an industrial revolution at its climax, pollution, and
sociopolitical unrest. The exclamation hence implies a clever marriage of two contrary situations into
one; the true reality of the city, that it is not a calm and tranquil place, because of the mighty heart
that is lying still, can wake up in seconds from the dead to become the same vivacious and
industrious city that it had always been, resulting in an instant change of serenity to that of complete
opposite.

This is another paradox artfully put together summing up all of the city into a single object that is”
mighty”, yet “lying still” – dead. The speaker’s view from afar, upon the bridge, enables him to
oversee the magnificence of the “majestic city” at that particular hour from a clear perspective
summing it all up into one metaphor that is all mighty, and in deep timed slumber.

8
Tayseer Abdul Majeed ENN102E – Assignment 01
Student No. 35287314

Question 4: Essay exploring the way the sonnet

represents the city to the reader.

When reading “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge”, the reader, at the first instant, is exposed to
an array of sparkling adjectives and poetic devices, positively associating London with all of
nature’s phenomena from sky, sun, rivers, valleys to the rocks and hills through what the speaker
sees, thinks and feels. Even if the reader had never been to London, s/he is bound to experience
and visualize the visual mastery of the poem. However, the embedded paradoxical images may
therefore be elusive due to the immediately perceived sense of appreciation. This essay intends to
explore other perspectives of the poem, the denotations that lie beneath the first impression of
admiration of the British Empire’s capital, and the home of the Industrial Revolution at the time.

Written in September 1802, much after Wordsworth had actually been on Westminster Bridge on
his journey to Calais, France, Wordsworth is shocked at the freshness of London at that rare
moment, despite all what is said to the contrary. Being a worshipper of nature, Wordsworth is taken
aback by the beauty of the man-made city, even its very landmarks and buildings seem to blend
with the glory of dawn. He is renowned for being a seminal poet at the age of the English
Romanticism, experiencing firsthand the explosive period of aesthetic, political, social, philosophical
and industrial movements in England, France and Europe (J. Wordsworth et al. 1988) with
persistent hostility towards all that was contradictory to divine nature, and promoted his imaginative
romantic school of thought throughout.

The Italian petrarchan sonnet of the unattainable love with its liberty of form, is in itself a symbol to
the poet’s romantic literature. The first octave, as traditionally, introduces the sonnet with a
compelling first three lines that induce curiosity to the subject. It further builds up with physical
descriptions of the city and its artificial man-made features in admiration. The second section of the
peom is preceded by a volta break (wikipedia) which transitions the change of mood between the
octave and the sestet. The decasyllabic structure of each line shows great discipline in contrast to
the liberty of spirit within the poems structure. The dominant theme throughout the sonnet is that of
nature’s harmony. The sestet carries further the metaphorical and paradoxical semiotic initiated in
the octave. However, here there is more focus on the natural phenomena within the city than of its
actual features or possessions.

The opening line strikes the first surprise from a romantic poet stating that “Earth has not anything
to show more fair;” ridiculing by that all earthly beauty in comparison to what lies ahead of his eyes,
to the extent of shunning one’s dead spirit that would pass without marveling in recognition of this
unique beauty. Cleanth Brooks (1947) in ”The Well Wrought Urn” makes the paradox that the
speaker is himself registering a surprising discovery. Bialostosky (1992) elaborates that the speaker
not only expresses a sense of awed surprise at the discovery that man-made London is a part of
nature too; he gives unreserved testimony to the power of the scene before him against the claims
of anything else the earth has to show or of any moment he has known of natural illumination. The
second and third lines evoke an emotional response from the reader to support the initial claim of
the earth having nothing more fair to show, and preparing the reader to the descriptions yet to
come:

8
Tayseer Abdul Majeed ENN102E – Assignment 01
Student No. 35287314

“Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty”

Despite the odd rhyme of the word “majesty”, it serves as a royal and/or divine depiction to further
dramatize the scene. Bialostosky compared the tone used in the second and third line to that of a
“convert who has turned away decisively from blindness towards light of revealed truth”. In a quote
he further says;

“Wordsworth preserves the memory of his former view not as a standard but as a
reminder of the dullness of soul from which the present revelation freed him.”

He interprets the speaker’s view of London as a “successfully exorcized dullness of soul” (89). “The
City”, self-consciously capitalized in personification, is further amplified by the word “doth”, a
classical third person pronoun of the verb “do” (Oxford online dictionary), wearing the beauty of the
morning in another paradoxical situation, of being bare, yet wearing the seemingly luxurious
garment of the morning. “The City now doth, like a garment wear” contains a simile that also
possibly inclines nature being this garment, and the artificial city wearing it, suiting and fitting in
strikingly well. It is transformed from an object to a lively spirit. Could it be possible that the vision in
this line depicts an image of a beautiful woman? The choice of the word “garment” in particular can
support this premise, in comparison to a “cloak” for instance. The speaker expects that only nature
can wear “the beauty of the morning” but declares that man-made London can indeed be part of
nature putting on the same “garment” in perfect accord (Brooks 1947).

The physical aspects of what makes the city a city, such as “ships, towers, domes, theatres, and
temple” are then described – also “bare” and under the garment of the morning – lying “open unto
the fields and to the sky” signifying a homogenous co-existence of man-made structures and nature
without contradiction. It is as if suddenly these very places which are normally inhabited and
continuously in activity and motion, have become part of the “earth” itself. The morning garment has
a sparkling effect over them in a seemingly miraculous moment of illumination. Langbaum (1983)
suggests that the coming discontinuity is broached in the eight line at the mention of the “smokeless
air” which suggest the smoke to come. The adjective “smokeless is key in conveying both the direct
meaning as well as its opposite revealing the duality of consciousness out of which the sonnet is
organized (Bialostosky). Moreover in support of the latter premise, S.T. Coleridge, Wordsworth’s
friend and co-poet of “Lyrical Ballads”, formulated poetry to be “the balance and reconciliation of
opposite and discordant qualities” (Coleridge 1817). The bright and glistening effect can thus be
presumed to be the result of the paradoxical condition of the absence of the usually present and
seen smoke. This in itself it testimony to the romantic school of thought that objects to the
implications the industrial revolution has on nature from violation of poor enslaved labour to even
polluting the heavenly sky and air.

The “epiphanic moment” theory of Langbaum (1983) is inspired by the persistence of the denial the
word “Never” plays in provoking an emotional response in the reader when it states: “Never did sun
more beautifully steep /In his first spleandour, valley, rock or hill” sensing the warms of the subtle
rising sun at dawn over all the landscape, and the reason for the glittering and bright City. The
reinforcement of the denial “Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!” indicated Wordsworth’s high
appreciation of the city’s beauty. The use of the personalized “I” for the first time is also a testimony,
8
Tayseer Abdul Majeed ENN102E – Assignment 01
Student No. 35287314

emphasizing more dramatizations to his awe. Langbaum’s description of Wordswoth’s epiphany

comes to a climax in: “The river glideth at his own sweet will” with visual, auditory and tactile
senses, as well as personification of the river itself while capturing its motion at such perfection that
the very direction in which it flows that of its very own will (1983).

The exclamation of “Dear God!” is a call of awe at that silent peaceful picture. His belief in God is
identified with the utterance of the expression whilst marveling at the visual and auditory calmness
as if feeling divine presence while perceiving the houses as a living being in deep slumber. He is a
“prophet of nature”, as he describes himself in the “The Prelude” (Wordsworth 1966). He is a man
whose worship of God is as holy as is nature is sacred to him.

A complex paradox in lines 13 and 14 is at work with the denotation of usually busy activity of the
houses within this heavily populated city at a time of an industrial revolution at its climax, pollution,
and sociopolitical unrest. The exclamation hence implies a clever marriage of two contrary situations
into one; the true reality of the city, that it is not a calm and tranquil place, because of the mighty
heart that is lying still, can spring up awake in seconds from the dead to become the same vivacious
and industrious city that it had always been, resulting in an instant change of serenity to that of
complete opposite. On the other hand, according to David Ferry, an analogy to that of a human
bodily is indicated in the metaphor, he writes :

“The last line of Wordsworth’s sonnet suggests that the city is not merely sleeping but
dead, its heart stilled. The poet looks at London and sees it as a sort of corpse and
admires it as such, welcomes a death to which the city has come to stand for in his
symbolic world”

John Beer (1978) cultivates Ferry’s thought in a suggestion that the comparison to death is not
necessarily sinister or pessimistic given the total images around the city lying still and a stream
moving in peace. For the bodily state to which it would correspond is that of arrested heartbeat
accompanied by a sense of an ongoing peaceful flow – in other words the experience of trance
(1987:218). This indicates the hostility to the industrial machine, in a manner that implies a spirit of
life evoked by a trance-state of death.

The sonnet is artfully designed to align a double discourse depicting emotions of love and
resentment both at the same time. The reader will therefore be obliged to view the poem from a
certain single perspective at a time as it is impossible to view both images at once because “the
mind insists it shall be ‘either or’“ (Prickett 1980). This is a mark of Wordsworthian literary genius and
his interest in the salient or symbolically charged detail (McCalman et al. 2001) in portraying two
complex situations within each other; one in nature-loving and admiration of the exceptional city, and
the second in sympathy embedded at the loss of the epiphany once that “mighty heart” is no longer
still.

8
Tayseer Abdul Majeed ENN102E – Assignment 01
Student No. 35287314

References:

Cleanth Brooks, 1946. “The Well Wrought Urn”, 1975 reprint New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
David Ferry, 1959. “The Limits of Mortality: An Essay on Wordsworth's Major
Poems”. Wesleyan University Press.
Don. H. Bialostosky, 1992. “Wordsworth, Dialogics, and the practice of
criticism”. Cambridge University Press.
"Doth." www.askoxford.com
F.R. Leavis, 1975. “The Living Principles: English as a Discipline of Thought”.
New York; NY Oxford University Press.
Iain McCalman et al. 2001, An Oxford Companion to The Romantic Age:
British Culture 1776-1832 (Paperback). Oxford University Press.
John Beer, 1978. “Wordsworth & The Human Heart”. MacMilan Press LTD.
J. Wordsworth, M.C. Jaye, et al. 1988 “WilliamWordsworth and the Age of
English Romanticism”. Rutgers University Press.
Stephen Prickett 1980. “Coleridge and Wordsworth: The Poetry of Growth”.
Cambridge University Press.
Robert Langbaum, 1983. “The Epiphanic Mode in Wordsworth and Modern
Literature”, New Literary History, XIV/2. 1983.
Wikipedia.com, “Composed upon Westminster Bridge”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composed_upon_Westminster_Bridge,_September_
3,_1802