COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE (190)

-The setting in place is London, while the setting in time is the early morning (In “London” = London at
night). 
-l.2–> “dull would he be” is an inversion, because he wrote in this way instead of writing “he would be
dull” (Dull means insensitive and indifferent).
-l.2–> “Who could pass by” means to ignore. 
!In these first lines the poet underlines the majesty and beauty of the city and there is the general
statement of the poet to introduce the topic.
-Then there is the description of the city at the moment the day starts. 
-l.4–> this city wears a dress (similes). 
-l. 5–> the morning is beautiful because the city is silent, bare (empty, without people). 
-l.6-7–> at this moment of the day the poet can admire London from Westminster bridge and he can
see the beauty of the city in its natural beauty. 
-l.8–> smokeless = clean, because in the early morning air is not polluted (difference with “London”). 
!Here there is a positive description of the city only because the poet is observing London in the early
morning, in which the city is not covered by smoke but only by sun. 
-l.11 —> “never saw I (=the poet), never felt a calm so deep! = sense of tranquility and calm.
!While in the second part there is the description of the poet's emotions, of his impressions.
-l.12 —> “the river (=the Thames) glideth at his own sweet will;” = it means that the Thames, which
we know is an important route of transportation, flows freely, peacefully and naturally and so he can
admire its beauty. (!In London of Blake the Thames was chartered, so there was the impossibility of
seeing the river in its natural beauty) 
-l.13 —> “Dear God! The very houses seem asleep” = this is a personification. 
-l.14 —> “and all that mighty heart is lying still!” = so the emotions felt by the poet, admiring nature,
are positive, in fact nature is, according to Wordsworth, a source of joy, it gives positive feelings, not
corrupted by industrialization, industrial work and the social system. 
-About figures of this poem, there are:
 repetitions (never), 
 the inversion (line 2),
 the use of the language of senses (=it’s an analogy with Blake because sight and hearing are
involved, in this case the silent).
-It has an octave and a sestet, so it is a petrarchan sonnet –> 8 lines stanza plus 6 lines stanza. 
-The tone is different from Blake’s one, because it is emotional, the rhythm is slow in order to give the
poet the possibility of admiring nature’s beauty. 
-The rhyme scheme is ABBA ABBA CDCDCD. 
!In London there is an atmosphere of suspense, while here it is calm.
!In Blake’s London he focuses on society made up of people that are victims, while here the poet
doesn’t mention people, he focuses on nature and the city because the city is bare, so people are still
sleeping. 
DAFFODILS (192)

-there are 4 stanzas with 6 lines. 

-l.5 —> the setting in place is the lake 

-the rhythm scheme is ABABAB CDCDEE FGFGHH ILMM.  
-the presence of nature is abundant: lake, daffodils, hills, trees, ext —> the idea of nature is positive
and is a source of joy. 
-There is the presence of the poet who expresses his feelings in contact with nature. 
-This is an example of the idea of poetry that is the emotion recollected in tranquility —> in the first
moment the poet is living a sensitive experience with nature, in the second moment (last stanza)
there’s the emotion recollected in tranquility because he is on his sofa and in this moment he has the
memory of this previous experience: he recollects that emotion and is inspired to write the poem.
-there is the personification of daffodils presented as if they were human beings —> in fact
Wordsworth has a pantheistic view of nature.
- loneliness is represented in a positive way because solitude gives the opportunity of administering
the beauty of nature or being in contact with nature or understanding nature. 
-In London there is a very bitter tone —> While here there is the idea of harmony, peace, happiness
and so the vocabulary reflects these feelings. 
-“They stretched in a never-ending way” and “ten thousand” —> are an example of
hyperbole=exaggeration. 
-In London the nature is corrupted by industrialisation, here nature can express itself freely: dancing,
ecc
-In the second moment, so in the last stanza, there is also a change in the use of tenses: in the
previous 3 stanzas the poet uses the past simple, while in the fourth one there is the present simple
because he’s referring to present sensations (=recollection of tranquillity)
!While in London he started the sonnet saying “I wonder…”, so he wondered to be alone as a cloud =
natural element. 
-Memory has a key role —> because through it, he can recollect all the moments.