126. 201. Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 (33)
1. What is the theme of "Composed upon Westminster Bridge"?
Ans:- The theme of "Composed upon Westminster Bridge" is that a city, before it awakens, can offer the same calm and serenity as a wholly natural scene.
The theme of the poem is that peace and tranquility can be found just as much or more in contemplating a cityscape as in contemplating a landscape in the country. To achieve this effect, the poet describes London in anthropomorphic terms as if it were a human or even a godlike entity. Its clothing is the bright glittering beauty of the morning. For the moment, as Wordsworth observes, its "mighty heart is lying still." Its various components, such as its houses, "ships, towers, domes, theaters, and temples" are devoid of the bustling of humans, which brings a preternatural hush and pause on the scene.
The loveliness that Wordsworth glimpses while standing on the bridge is observed in a moment out of time. This will not last long, however; soon the city's inhabitants will wake up and start a new day. The streets and buildings will come alive with swarms of people, and the air will fill with smoke. The "calm so deep" will be gone. The poet recognizes the transient nature of the scene as he proclaims that it is steeped in the sun's "first splendor" and wears "the beauty of the morning," which of course inevitably will give way to the noise and filth of the day. We realize, then, that unspoken but implied in the poem is Wordsworth's awareness that normally the city of London is anything but tranquil and that seeing it like this in all its wonder and magnificence, even if only for a short period of time, is such a splendid experience that he has to cry "Dear God!" in wonder and awe.
In his poem “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802,” William Wordsworth reflects on the human ability to see, appreciate, and immerse in beauty no matter where it is found.
Wordsworth normally takes great delight and spiritual comfort in the scenes of nature, yet here he stands looking over a city and thinking that “Earth has not any thing to show more fair” than the scene before him. Only the dullest of souls could pass by without noticing. The city wears beauty “like a garment.” It is unusually silent, and its man-made structures lie open against the natural landscape and the sky.
All is “bright and glittering,” for the smoke has not yet begun to rise from the factories. The sun looks upon the city, steeping it in beauty just as much as it does with hills and valleys. The poet descends into a deep calm as he watches the river glide by. Everything, even “the very houses,” appears to be asleep, and the “mighty heart” of the city lies still.
Again, Wordsworth does not often reflect upon a city in this way. Normally, he looks upon an urban scene with distaste and thinks about how humans spoil nature with their “progress.” But in this poem, he finds beauty in the most unlikely place, a sleeping city. He takes the time to look, and he appreciates what he sees. He stands still and allows the beauty to enter into him as he enters into it, and in the midst of the city, he finds peace.
Standing on Westminster Bridge, looking at London lying spread out on the horizon in the early morning sunrise, the speaker is moved by the beauty of the scene.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
Though Wordsworth usually finds his deepest serenity and solace in nature, here, near a city, he feels that he has never felt a calm in nature ("valley, rock, or hill") like the one he sees as the sun rises over the still city. He is emotionally moved by this sight because it is so unexpected.
The theme of this sonnet is that a city can offer the same peace and beauty as a wholly natural scene. This startles Wordsworth, who, as he describes in his long autobiographical poem The Prelude, usually thought of civilization as a corruption of the divine beauty of the natural world.
The poem illustrates the tenets of Romantic poetry that Wordsworth laid out in the preface to the groundbreaking poetry volume Lyrical Ballads: the poem is written in simple language and yet is lyrical in that it expresses the speaker's strong emotions.
The poem's theme is relatable to anybody who has been up and around in a city in the early morning before most of the residents are awake or businesses open, when a deep calm prevails.
What is strange about this poem is that Wordsworth, a Romantic poet who focussed so much on the beauty of Nature and the countryside, takes as his topic the city of London and treats it with a distinctly Romantic flavour.
This poem or sonnet praises the quiet and shimmering beauty of London in the light of an early morning. Throughout the poem Wordsworth uses personification to present the city and its houses and so on as humans, emphasising the peace of tranquility of his view:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning...
The theme of this poem thus seems to be that cities can inspire similar feelings of "calm so deep" as Nature can, and in the final line, Wordsworth uses a paradox to present us with a final image of tranquility and silence:
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
Of course, hearts by their very nature never lie still, yet from his viewpoint, Wordsworth is able to imagine the "heart" of the country, London, "lying still" as he savours the peace and relaxation that the sight gives him. Such a poem allows us to see that Romanticism does not exclusively focus on Nature, and that similar themes can be found in poetry describing cities, which were normally seen as the anithesis of the simplicity and beauty to be found in nature.
2. Write the summary of the poem.
Ans:- William Wordsworth is one of the most renowned and influential Romantic poets. He was England's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.
"Composed upon Westminster Bridge" is one of the most famous sonnets of William Wordsworth. This sonnet, a poem of fourteen lines, was composed between July 31 and September 3, 1807, and was first published in Poems in Two Volumes in 1807. "Composed upon Westminster Bridge" portrays the quiet, the calm, and the silence which prevailed, when Wordsworth crossed Westminster Bridge with his sister Dorothy while traveling in a boat from London to Calaise on July 31, 1802. Dorothy Wordsworth, in her Journal has described this scene thus: “The City, St. Paul’s with the river and a multitude of little boats made a most beautiful sight. The house was not overhung by their cloud of smoke, and they were spread out endlessly, yet the sun shone so brightly, with such a fierce light, that there was even something like the purity of one of nature’s own grand spectacle.”
This sonnet, Italian or Spenserean in structure, divisible into an octave (first eight lines) and a sestet (last six lines) is a study in contrast between the noisy day and calm morning. The feeling of peace and calm experienced by the poet has communicated to the readers’ heart also. The last line fully brings before us the contrast between the noisy and hurried activities and processes that go on during the day in the great city and the calm and quiet which prevails a dawn: “And all that might heart is lying still.”
William Wordsworth, in his most beautiful sonnet, "Composed upon Westminster Bridge", provides us a vivid picture of the city of London, which is seen from Westminster Bridge in the early morning. He tells us that ships, towers, domes, theaters, and churches are lying silent and glittering in the smokeless, morning air. The descriptive quality of Composed upon Westminster Bridge… is remarkable for its most economic use of words.
The poet starts his poem by saying that the scene of the city from Westminster Bridge is so beautiful that there cannot be anything more beautiful than this scene on this earth. A man who can pass by this beautiful scene without being affected by it would be very dull. The site is full of grandeur and appeals greatly to the heart. It seems that the city of London is wearing a white dress of light of the morning. The city is without the noise of the day, silent and peaceful, and open up to the sky. The poet says that in the river there are ships and on the bank, there are towers, theatres, and temples or churches lying silent and glittering in the smokeless morning 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!
In the sestet (last six lines) of his sonnet, Wordsworth speaks of the glorious beauty of the sunshine of the morning. He expresses the view that the sun was never seen in the grandeur of the beauty of sunshine in any valley, on any rock or hill, as it is shining on this morning.
The poet says that he neither saw nor felt such deep calm ever before. The river (Thames) flows majestically in its own course, at its own chosen path. The poet feels grateful to God for the quiet scene in which even the house appears so still as if they are sleeping. It seems that the heart of the big city has stopped beating to see the beauty of the calm and quiet of the Natural objects. This calm and quiet beauty of morning has been placed as a contrast to the commercial character of the city of London during the day when there is a great noise bustle.
Looking at the beauty of London city in the early morning, the poet is quite mesmerized by it. It seems that the city is wearing a garment of beauty. The tall building of the city, its towers, domes, theatres, and temples as well as the big ships anchored at its harbor lie upon in the smokeless air of the early morning. They look bright and glittering.
These are the concluding lines of Composed upon Westminster Bridge. What has struck the poet most about the sight of London city early in the morning is the calm that has enveloped it. The entire city seems to be sleeping. It has not stirred as yet. Once it does so it would start throbbing with activities. But at the moment this mighty heart of England is still.
3. Explain the sonnet briefly.
Ans:- “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” is a sonnet written by William Wordsworth, arguably the most prominent of the English Romantic Poets. The title marks a specific place and time—a viewpoint over London’s River Thames during the Industrial Revolution—and is typical of Wordsworth, whose work often deals with both the power and fleeting nature of remembered moments. The poem’s speaker contemplates the city at dawn, seeing it for its breathtaking beauty while also acknowledging the industrial forces transforming it. When published, the poem appeared alongside sonnets that explicitly criticized industrial England.
4. How is London presented by the poet?
Ans:- According to the poet, no sight on Earth is more beautiful than the view from Westminster Bridge. In fact, only someone suffering from a severe spiritual deficiency could walk by without noticing the view, which is emotionally stirring in its all-encompassing magnificence. London is wearing the clear, soft light of dawn like a piece of clothing. Undisturbed by human activity, the city’s many different buildings stretch outward and upward, until they blend into the surrounding farmland and overarching sky. The city shines like a diamond, and the air is clear. The sunlight has never shone on any feature of the natural landscape more beautifully than it now shines on the city as a whole. I've never seen nor felt such pure and unwavering tranquility. The river flows easily, guided only by the forces of nature. My God, even the houses seem like they’re sleeping. The whole city is like a single, immensely powerful object that for the moment remains inactive.
5. Can nature versus civilization be a theme?
Ans:- Nature vs. Civilization can be a theme in the sonnet.
In “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802,” the speaker contemplates early-morning London from a bridge. In the clear, quiet dawn, the speaker’s takes in the city and its natural surroundings, seeing them as both separate and unified. By comparing the city to the natural world that surrounds it, the poem emphasizes the challenge of locating a clear border between the two. The poem arguably goes so far as to suggest that there isn’t one, and that the city itself is an extension of nature.
6. How is the title linked to the sonnet.
Ans:- With its title, the poem opens with an image of a bridge—a symbol of the bond between the human and the natural world. A bridge is a human-made structure that spans a natural feature (in this case, the River Thames). It puts distance between people and the water yet also creates a space for people to appreciate the water from a new angle. In that sense, the bridge allows people to both overcome nature and immerse themselves in it more deeply. As an image, then, this bridge represents the link between these two worlds.
7. How is city and nature linked or related?
Ans:- The poem’s first lines develop the connection between the city and nature by describing the city itself as a natural feature of the Earth. In fact, according to the speaker, the city is actually better looking than any other feature of “Earth,” to the point that the sight of it is “touching.” “Earth” is a word that more strongly connotes the planet’s green and blue wilderness than the image of a city, yet in the speaker’s description, the Earth seems proud to “show”—as in “show off”—early-morning London as if the city were its offspring.
The speaker also challenges perceived borders between nature and the city. The speaker lists some of the manmade structures he or she looks upon—“Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples,” which at first might suggest a contrast between urban and natural scenery. Yet even as their variety is evidence of human beings’ technical skill, it is also indebted to the various forms of nature: mountains, cliffs, canyons, trees, etc. These structures lie “Open unto the fields,” as if to acknowledge their debt, “and to the sky,” as if to locate both the city’s aspirations and its limits. Furthermore, the city’s openness suggests a fluid border—that there is no clear line where the city ends and nature begins. This is further exemplified when the speaker notes that the river glides through the city “at his own sweet will.”
Finally, the poem judges this mix of city and nature as somehow even better than “pure” nature. In fact, the city seems the ideal stage for contemplating the “beauty of the morning,” as the morning sunlight is somehow better appreciated when cast upon the waking city. “Never did sun more beautifully steep / In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill,” the speaker says. Rather than reveal the city’s ugliness, the sunlight enhances its fairness. The cityscape seems to glitter with more majesty than “valley, rock, or hill” ever did. Like mountains, the buildings are also “silent” and “bare”—imagery that suggests the city itself as a place of peace and renewal.
8. How is the Industrial Revolution linked with the poem?
Ans:- It’s worth noting that Wordsworth wrote this poem during the Industrial Revolution, meaning that the idyllic London his speaker describes was probably far from the reality of urban life at the time. In this sense, the poem can also be understood as a vision of what an ideal city could be, or perhaps simply an overly rosy vision spurred by the relative clarity of a morning not yet encumbered by the smoke of industry.
9. How is the individual related to the city?
Ans:- The poem’s first three lines emphasizes the tension between the individual and the city, or between the part and the whole. Because they make opinionated claims about the beauty of the city, the first two lines confirm that a single city-dweller (or city-visitor) is speaking. The third line, however, widens the scope. This poem isn't about particular street-level relationships, but rather about the broader, vaguer “majesty” of the city; though filtered through one person's perspective, this is a poem about the whole of London. And by speaking with such conviction, the speaker suggests that the sight of the city can be emotionally stirring for any viewer. The speaker, therefore, prepares to participate in the collective of the city’s literal waking, an experience that’s all the more “touching”—more majestic—when shared.
At the same time, the speaker sees the city for its resemblance to a single person who, “like a garment” wears the “beauty of the morning.” In this way, the speaker conditions the reader to the contradiction of one (i.e. the city) equaling many (i.e. its many distinct inhabitants). The speaker also seems to be reminding the reader that the city would not exist if it weren’t for living, breathing human beings. Though writing during a time of exploding industry, the speaker asserts that, more than any factory, people are what make up a city’s identity.
The speaker concludes with a striking image that represents both the individual city-dweller and the city as a whole: “the very houses seem asleep; / And all that mighty heart is lying still!” The speaker notably moves from the plural “houses” to the singular “heart,” a metaphor for the sleeping city. Again, this suggests that the city’s many individual residents together form one identity. This heart is a giant life force, on the brink of setting over a million lives into motion. The “mightiness” of this solitary heart ends the poem on a note of strength: the unified identity of the city is what gives it, and all the individuals who live there, potential.
10. How is impermanence presented in the poem?
Ans:- The poem takes place at dawn, a moment of fleeting tranquility before the city wakes up and interrupts the speaker’s calm. This sense of impermanence infuses every aspect of the poem. It repeatedly reminds the reader that the city represents change, in the sense that it has transformed the landscape and reordered human life. Thus, the poem argues that beauty and tranquility are impermanent—but it also insists that despite the change, beauty can always be recovered.
From its opening lines, the poem describes a version of the city that will not last and so impermanent. The city is “fair” and “touching in its majesty.” In the morning sunlight, it is “silent” and “bare.” The speaker does not say what will come next, but given what we know about London during the Industrial Revolution, we can safely assume that noise and roughness will replace the silence and fairness once people wake up and start going to work. Other pieces of the poem’s context also imply the impermanence of the speaker’s vision. Presumably the speaker is in transit, not just standing on the bridge, but walking across it. The day is specified too, emphasizing the momentary nature of the vision.
By omitting, or merely hinting at, the characteristic features of an industrial city, the poem emphasizes the impermanence of what the speaker sees. The speaker describes the spread of buildings as “All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.” With the words “bright” and “glittering,” the speaker conveys a sense of total clarity. But this clarity only exists thanks to the absence of smoke in the air. The speaker implicitly reminds readers that the city will only look this way as long as the factories aren’t churning.
11. How is the river shown in the poem?
Ans:- The “river glideth” without anything blocking or diverting it. The river runs “at his own sweet will,” that is, without human interference. This tranquil image contributes to the speaker’s deep calm. Given the context of the poem, however, it’s arguable that the speaker says this knowing that, given the factories and slaughterhouses that line its banks, the river is growing more polluted—and less naturally beautiful—every day.
12. Briefly comment on the hyperbolic usage.
Ans:- The poem uses hyperbolic language in three places: lines 1, 9, and 11. In these lines, the speaker declares that London at dawn is the most beautiful, tranquil sight on Earth. What’s notable about this hyperbole is that the speaker uses it sincerely—overwhelmed by the moment, he or she truly believes that the sight is the most beautiful on Earth. While the lines sound hyperbolic to the reader, they may not sound that way to the speaker.
Even so, the first line of the poem is an opinion stated as fact, a clear sign of hyperbolic language. In it, the speaker claims that of all that the planet contains, both natural and human made, nothing is “more fair” than this vision of London at dawn. The line’s careful word choice emphasizes the hyperbole. By opening with the all-encompassing “Earth,” the speaker applies judgment to one of the largest fields possible, increasing the likelihood of the claim being hyperbolic.
When the speaker makes the claim, he or she uses “not any thing” rather than “nothing.” While this serves the technical purpose of giving the line an extra syllable so that it conforms to the 10-syllable pentameter (though it’s not purely iambic), it also stretches the claim’s key language. “In case there’s any doubt,” the speaker seems to be saying, “I’m going to enunciate my point clearly.” Given that the poem doesn’t speak merely for England or Europe, but the entire world, the reader might be justified in wondering on what authority the speaker makes this claim, but given the description that follows, it seems more sincere than self-conscious.
In lines 9 and 11, the speaker returns with hyperbolic language to describe the visual and emotional effects of the interaction between the sun and the city’s buildings. As in line 1, these lines use negative language (in line 1, “not any thing,” and here, repetition of “never”) to get across a simple point: the moment is incomparably beautiful. Line 9 reads almost as a repetition of line 1, except the sun takes the place of the Earth. The Earth has nothing more fair to show off, and the sun, at this moment, is at the top of “his” game in warmly illuminating the city. Here, the sun and Earth are teammates in a cosmic system, funneling all their powers of demonstration and illumination into the view of London from the River Thames.
If that sounds far-fetched, it’s because it is—it's hyperbolic. But line 11, while it deepens the hyperbole, provides an answer to the question raised in line 1, namely, on what authority does the speaker make his or her claim? In a poem told entirely from a single perspective, line 11 contains the first use of “I,” reminding the reader that as absolute as these claims may seem, they represent just one person's view of the world.
13. Explain any adjective of the poem which is in context with the theme.
Ans:- Fair
“Fair” is an adjective whose primary meaning here is “beautiful.” It can also be taken to mean “light,” in reference to the sunlight at dawn, and “pleasant,” which applies to the clear, cloudless w
The poem is an Italian sonnet (also known as a Petrarchan sonnet), a 14-line poem broken into an octave (eight lines, or two quatrains) and a sestet (six lines, or two tercets). In a traditional Italian sonnet, the octave is supposed to present the “proposition,” or a sort of problem. In the sestet, with what’s known as the “turn,” the poem is supposed to address or resolve that problem.
14. Explain as octave and sestet of the sonnet.
Ans:- This poem doesn’t exactly follow that structure—arguably, the view of the city described in the octave isn’t a problem, and the sestet doesn’t go about solving it. But if we apply the definition of the Italian sonnet more loosely, the poem does follow its form. The octave presents an image of the city, and the sestet describes the emotional effect of that view on the speaker.
Furthermore, the image undergoes a transformation in the sestet. Here, there's another slight deviation from the Italian sonnet. Traditionally, the turn is supposed to start with the sestet. Though line 9 does enact a turn by beginning to comment on the image from the octave, there’s an even sharper turn closer to the end of the poem. In the last two lines, the speaker cries out to God and sees the city as a massive heart. In this way, Wordsworth integrates a touch of the English (or Shakespearean) sonnet, whose turn occurs in the concluding couplet.
15. Comment on the meter of the poem.
Ans:- Most sonnets written in English follow iambic pentameter, but the lines are pretty irregular. In all his poetry, Wordsworth aimed to represent common speech, the type he might have heard in London in 1802. The poem’s more flexible meter lends authenticity to the speaker’s description of the city, and spontaneity to the speaker's reactions to it. The stresses of the lines also often serve to emphasize specific words and reflect the speaker's strong emotions.
Starting with line 1, it’s clear that the poem has broken with strict metrical convention:
Earth has | not a- | ny thing | to show | more fair:
Rather than begin with the unstressed-stressed syllable pair of the iamb, the poem starts with its reverse, the trochee, a stressed-unstressed foot that has a bold quality. The speaker begins the poem on an assertive note that reflects the speaker's conviction in the city's "fairness." As the first word and a stressed syllable, “Earth” is emphasized, signaling that the poem will deal just as much with nature as the city. Trochees repeat in the first feet of lines 9 and 11 as well, adding forcefulness—a sort of oomph—to the word "never."
In line 6, Wordsworth makes use of stressed syllables in a different way, to clarify the poem’s images:
Ships, tow- | ers, domes, | theatres, |and tem- | ples lie
Here, all the one-syllable buildings are stressed, and all the two-syllable buildings are trochees, which again, give the words a sort of heaving, emphatic quality, as if the buildings are rising firmly from the ground.
In line 4 and line 13, the opening spondees (stressed-stressed) reflect the intense emotion as the speaker beholds the city and later calls out to God:
This City
And:
Dear God!
Importantly, at the end of the poem—and the end of the speaker’s emotional development—the rhythm falls into pure iambic pentameter:
And all | that migh- | ty heart | is ly- | ing still!
The speaker describes the city in many different ways in the poem, as if searching for the proper image. The search gives the poem a meandering and sometimes spontaneous quality that finally arrives at the “mighty heart.” With the exclamation mark, this conclusion is resounding and confident, and those qualities are reinforced by the steady beat of iambic pentameter (even if the heart, “lying still,” does not beat).
16. Comment on the rhyme scheme.
Ans:- The typical rhyme scheme for an Italian sonnet is ABBAABBA for the octave and either CDECDE or CDCDCD for the sestet, and this poem follows that faithfully (it goes with the latter of the sestet options):
ABBAABBA CDCDCD
The only spot where it diverges is in line 3, where the poem has a slant rhyme. “Majesty” doesn’t rhyme exactly with “by,” “lie,” or “sky.” This could draw attention to outlying words, but it’s probably more likely to go unnoticed. Since the slant rhyme occurs in line 3, the reader can’t yet be certain that the poem is supposed to rhyme at all.
In fact, despite the obvious rhyme scheme, it’s easy to read the entire poem without paying too much attention to rhyme. Thanks to a few cases of enjambment, some of the rhymes blend seamlessly into the next line (for example, between “lie” in line 7 and “Open” in line 8, the emphasis is on “Open,” softening its rhyme with “sky”).
There are also a few cases of internal rhyme in the poem. In line 2, “Dull” is a slant rhyme with “soul," as is “more” in line 9 with “splendour” in line 10. But these rhymes are subtle, and perhaps meant to go unnoticed. Wordsworth was heavily concerned with representing authentic human speech in his poetry. Writing about a city, a huge container of human life, that concern may have been exaggerated. It’s no surprise that in rhyming his lines he opted for the subtle over the obvious.
17. Does the poem “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” share any name or gender?
Ans:- The speaker of “Westminster Bridge” has no name, gender, or identifying features. Given biographical information, one could argue that the speaker is Wordsworth, but the poem itself contains none of that information.
18. How is the view presented in the poem?
Ans:- What is clear is that the speaker is a person who is surprised, delighted, conflicted about, and in awe of the view of the city. The view is powerful enough to give the speaker what at first sounds like absolute confidence: “Earth has not anything to show more fair.” And later: “Never did the sun more beautifully steep.” But the poem’s careful descriptions reveal that the speaker is at least on some level conscious of the contradictions in the pretty view. The buildings are “bright and glittering,” but only because the air is “smokeless.” In the final image, the speaker sees the whole city—a collection of over a million people—as a single heart. By developing toward the “mighty heart” lying in wait, the most striking and ambiguous image of the poem, the speaker comes across as aware of the fleeting nature of the city’s tranquility.
19. Explain the title of the sonnet.
Ans:- "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” Setting
As its title spells out, the setting for the poem is Westminster Bridge, which spans the River Thames in London, on September 3, 1802. Westminster Bridge is now, and was then, in a notable location in London. In 1802, its west bank was home to the British Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey stands a bit more to the west.
20. Why was the year 1802 important?
Ans:- The year 1802 is important for two reasons. One, it tells readers that the poem was written about London during the Industrial Revolution, a period of major growth and change for the city. Two, it means that the French Revolution was still fresh in the memory of Europe. Though distraught over its devolution into Reign of Terror, Wordsworth was deeply influenced by democratic principles espoused by the French revolutionaries. Even though the poem itself makes no mention of any of this context, it helps readers understand the poem's efforts to see a sort of democratic beauty in the sprawling urban landscape.
21. What was the literary context of the poem?
Ans:- Literary Context:- “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802”
was written in 1802. Wordsworth published “Westminster Bridge” in a collection titled Poems, in Two Volumes in 1807. The collection contains some of Wordsworth’s best known poems, such as “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” in which the speaker indulges in an activity typical of Wordsworth: using the “inward eye” to reflect on a moment of previous tranquility in nature. “Westminster Bridge” is one of a cluster of sonnets that focus on humanity's impact on the world, but it differs from the others in its apparent optimism. In “London, 1802,” for example, England is described as a place of “stagnant waters” and “selfish men.” In “The World Is Too Much With Us,” Wordsworth condemns the state of the English people, saying “We have given our hearts away.” William Blake's "London," written around the same time, is also decidedly darker in its depiction of the city than is this poem. Though “Westminster Bridge” acknowledges human beings’ violent impact, especially evident in cities, it also encourages its readers to revise their view of the dirty, smelly, smoky, and all-around bad industrial city.
Wordsworth's goal is to use the language of common people in his poetry was similar to that of one of his major influences, the 17th-century English poet John Milton. Wordsworth’s sonnet “London, 1802,” starts with an apostrophe to Milton, and begs the author of Paradise Lost to “raise us up, return to us again; / And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.” Wordsworth’s plans to revitalize English poetry were not entirely revolutionary in nature, drawing in part on a conservative attachment to the past.
22. What was the historical context of the poem?
Ans:- Historical Context-
In 1802, Europe was undergoing the First Industrial Revolution. As machine manufacturing replaced the agrarian economy, cities like London grew, and people started making a much more noticeable impact on nature. The technological change also resulted in societal upheaval. In 1811, for example, a group of English textile workers known as the Luddites rebelled against their employers, destroying the machines that had begun to replace them.
Also at this time, the French Revolution was a recent memory. Wordsworth was highly sympathetic to the French democratic causes, though disgusted by the ensuing Reign of Terror. While living in France in the early 1790s, Wordsworth met and fell in love with Annette Vallon, and in 1792 she gave birth to their daughter Caroline. According to the journals of Wordsworth’s sister Dorothy (who was also a poet), “Westminster Bridge” was conceived on the morning of her departure with her brother to Calais, France. The purpose of the trip was to visit Caroline, whom Wordsworth had never met, and inform Annette of Wordsworth’s plans to marry his childhood friend Mary Hutchinson. Wordsworth put down a record of this visit, too. In the sonnet "It is a beauteous evening, calm and free," he describes walking on the beach with Caroline, at sunset.
23. When was the poem composed?
Ans:- The poem was composed in 3rd December 1802.
24. Who is the poet?
Ans:- William Wordsworth is the poet of 'Upon Westminster Bridge'.
Ans:- River Thames and the city of London are mentioned in the poem.
26. ‘Earth has not anything to show more fair.’ – What prompts the poet to say so?
Or. ‘Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!’ – What prompts the poet to say so?
A. The majestic sight of the city of London in the early morning prompts the poet to say the words. When the poet was passing through Westminster Bridge, he was highly impressed by the divine beauty of the great city. The city is in a state of sleep. There are no activities of man and no noise of vehicles. In the smokeless air, everything like the ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples looks bright and glittering. The poet feels a profound calmness that he never experienced before. The city is steeped in the radiance of the sun. The Thames flows freely and smoothly of its own sweet will. This abrupt transformation of the crowded city into a dreamland prompts the poet to such utterance.
27. ‘A sight so touching in its majesty.’ – What is the sight referred to here? What does the poet feel about the sight? Who would be dull of soul and why?
A. The marvellous sight of the great city of London in the early morning observed from Westminster Bridge is referred to here.
The poet feels that the sight is so beautiful that it cannot be compared to anything.
The poet was highly impressed with the view of the glorious morning. He feels it can allure everyone. No man can move without enjoying and appreciating the charming sight. If a person would pass by ignoring the beauty, he would be considered a dull soul or a person with aesthetic insensibility.
28. ‘Dull would he be of soul….’ – Who says this and where? Who prompts the poet to say this? What does the poet want to convey here?
A. William Wordsworth says this in the sonnet ‘Upon Westminster Bridge’.
The marvellous sight viewed from the Westminster Bridge in the early morning prompts the poet to say this.
The poet wants to convey that if anyone would pass by without enjoying the beauty of the glorious morning, he would be regarded as a dull soul or a person with aesthetic insensibility.
29. “The beauty of the morning; silent, bare” – What beauty does the poet refer to? Why is the beauty called ‘silent, bare’?
A. The poet refers to the morning beauty of the city of London observed from Westminster Bridge. The city seems to wear a garment steeped in the glittering sun.
The beauty of the morning is silent because it is the time of the early morning. The city is in a state of sleep and so, it is free from noise and activities. It is bare because there is nothing to obstruct the poet’s vision due to smokeless air. Everything is clear and glittering.
30. How does the poet look upon the sun in ‘Upon Westminster Bridge’? What is so deep and why?
A. The brilliant rays of the sun in the early morning bathe all objects of nature. It makes everything bright and glittering. The poet feels that the sun has never shone so beautifully on the valley, rock or hill.
The calmness is so deep.
The calmness is so deep because it is the time of the early morning. The great city of London which is usually noisy during day time is lying still. That is why calmness is felt profoundly.
31. ‘A sight so touching in its majesty.’ – What is the sight referred to here? How does the poet describe the sight?
A. The sight referred to here is the beautiful scene of London city viewed from Westminster Bridge in the early morning.
The beauty of the morning is described as silent and bare. It covers the city like a garment. The ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples look bright and glittering in the smokeless air. Bathed in the brilliant rays of the sun, the landscapes like the valley, rock and hill look extremely beautiful. The Thames generally obstructed by congestion during daytime is now flowing freely and smoothly of its own sweet will. The houses of the great city seem to be asleep.
32. Describe after Wordsworth, the city of London as given in the poem, ‘Upon Westminster Bright’.?
A. William Wordsworth presented a great panoramic view of the city of London in the morning in his sonnet ‘Upon Westminster Bridge’. The beauty of the morning covers the city like a garment. All the landmarks of the London city like the Westminster Bridge, The towers of London, the domes of St. Pauls, ships, theatres and temples have been described with great charm. Everything looks bright and glittering in the smokeless air. The sun steeps the whole city with its first rays. The river Thames flows gently of its own sweet will. All the houses seem to be asleep and the mighty city is still sleeping.
33. What is personification? How has Wordsworth employed this figure of speech in the poem?
A. Personification is a figure of speech in which an inanimate object or an abstract concept is spoken of as though it were offered with life or with human feelings.
In the sonnet, the poet William Wordsworth employed this figure of speech by personifying the city of London, the river Thames and the houses. Like a living being, the London city wears the garment of the morning beauty, the river Thames is gliding of its own sweet will and the houses seem sleeping.