Compare And Contrast The Two Romantic Views English Literature Essay

London at the end of the 18th century was full of disease, poverty, overcrowding, prostitution, child labour and of course, death and this was because of one thing, the industrial revolution. This decreased the standard of living of the citizens of London and made them have a very unpleasant life. People were too pressured and stressed about living under the control of the monarchy, so romantic poets started to write about the favour of rural life over urban life and the restoration of nature to the humans living there. Romantics criticized the monarchy and supported the French revolution where the monarchy was overthrown by power. Here is a list of romantic ideal, each poet has different viewpoints. They were critical of the city, the industry, the hatred of urban life, the reasons anyone made and the societal rules. On the other hand, they admired the freedom of each individual, the creative imagination, the love of the naturals, the countryside and obviously, the agriculture. The two poets I have studied are William Blake and William Wordsworth. They both had different romantic view points. Blake was very critical in his view of London but on the other hand, Wordsworth is very admiring of London. I will be examining the similarities and differences, the language and the symbolism, the historical context, the structure and the form of the poem and lastly how each poem links to the romantic ideas.

For both poems, the content and the message given is very different. Since the poem ‘London’ is a description about Londoners showing unrelieved misery, injustice oppression and so on, William Blake is basically criticizing the society. On the other hand, ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ written by William Wordsworth is described as a sleeping city, giving the message that London is a very beautiful and a natural place. Blake’s poem ‘London’ is a first person narrative involved and omniscient which means the poet sees everything, every landscape he or she can see with the naked eye. This goes the same with ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ because Wordsworth is also looking at London but in a different view point. Wordsworth is looking at the beautiful side of London and it is full of natural quotes in his poem. He never talks about or mentions anything about humans in his poem while on the other hand, Blake’s poem ‘London’ is full of criticisms on the people of London, how London is the worst place to live in at that time, the 18 to 19th century. The poem is both written on the present tense.

The tone for both poems is very different. As you can see, ‘London’ by Blake is a criticizing poem of the people of London or the city itself which implies that the tone will be very depressing and angry towards the city. On the other hand, ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ is a poem of loving nature, a sleeping city, which implies that the tone will be a very delight, enchanted and somehow there is a discovery feel towards it. However, the pace for both poems is similar. ‘London’ is a slow as in a monotony, which means that it is very repetitive and very dull, boring for the audience to read. Also it has no change in speed till the end of the poem. ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ is also a slow paced poem. You can tell this by the image of the sleeping city. However, this poem is more controlled and measured. The tone and pace suggests how the poem is read; how slow, how fast, how soft it has to be read, and so on. The rhythms of both poems are the same, being regular and calm, with unchanging paces because it is reinforced by the repetition of ‘in every’ to slow the reader down. But, the rhyme schemes are different. ‘London’ has a rhyme scheme of ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GHGH while ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge’ has a rhyme pattern of ABBA, ABBA, CD, CD, CD. They are obviously different because ‘London’ is just an ordinary poem while ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge’ is a Petrarchan sonnet.

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The structure of ‘London’ is a quatrain, which means 4 lines for each stanza, and each stanza shows a different side to London. The first stanza contains a lot of repetition such as ‘charter’ and ‘marks’. This creates an effect on how much Blake wanted freedom because charter means a written paper showing freedom. The whole stanza gives a message of misery. In the second stanza, the word ‘every’ is repeated 5 times which gives an effect of the monotony of life. From the beginning of the poem, Blake uses the technique of using the apostrophe. This signifies the words that are left out and creates the effect of bringing out the 18th century’s language. ‘Manacles’ on the last line is a metaphor of prisoners that are cuffed. This brings an effect of how people were treated in that time. The third stanza has an alliteration which creates a sibilant sound to state the sound of sorrow and sigh. Also there is a metaphor ‘runs in blood down palace walls”. The “Palace” is capitalized because it refers to the monarchy so the quote mentioned means that the monarchy is blamed for the deaths of soldiers who were forced to fight. The word ‘Black’ning’ is also a metaphor which indicates the pollution during the industrial revolution which was too much that covered the buildings black. On the last stanza, the grimness continues with pictures of unwanted babies born to Harlot’s. The “Marriage hearse” is a juxtaposition which implies the effects of change in society in sexual morality. Blake uses the romantic ideal of hatred of urban life.

The ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge’ is a petrarchan sonnet. It is divided in to octave and sestet and as it moves from the octave to sestet, the mood changes. “like a garment” is a simile which gives the reader an idea of the “City”. Wordsworth also uses a hyperbole on the start which is an expression to emphasize the depth of feeling. There are lots of metaphors such as “majesty;” which gives a regal imagery, images of royalty. Also, “smokeless air” implies that there are no factories running at this point, which again implies that without humans, London is a beautiful place. The final metaphor is “heart” which refers to the city, personifying London itself. The exclamation mark is used for personifying a sense of discovery or strength of feeling. The language used that is simple represents nature but the language that is complex represents manmade materials. The romantic ideal used in this poem is the love of nature and imagination because the whole poem is about nature and doesn’t say a single word about humans which represents how much he cares for the nature.

In conclusion, Blake shows the negative side to emphasize the romantic ideals and Wordsworth shows the side. Obviously, they use different romantic ideals because they have different viewpoints of the city London.