Compare and Contrast the ways in which Blake and Wordsworth

A detailed Summary of Compare and Contrast the ways in which Blake and Wordsworth

The two poets William Blake and William Wordsworth poets who lived roughly in the same time period give or take 10 years or so, but it is ironic how different their perception and portrayal of London is, Blake's poem is his view on London from most of his Life as he was a poor Londoner, Wordsworth's view is of London probably the only time he saw it on a coach journey with his sister. There are a few brief similarities in the two poems "London" by Blake and "Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802"; such as they both discuss the river Thames. But there are great differences within these similarities. The main contrasts in the two poems that relate to each other are in fact the sentences about the river Thames that Blake and Wordsworth use, Blake describes it as '..where the chartered Thames does flow..' and Wordsworth illustrates it as 'the river glideth as his own sweet will'. The two poets have totally different views of this river, Blake's' as a negative man made feature that has had its course mapped out for it, whereas Wordsworth sees it as a positive feature of nature, smooth and flowing, with no human corruption. These two perceptions of the river sum up the poets outlook on the city; negative and positive.

The sound techniques in the poem play a big part in the whole view of the poem, Blake makes all syllable long open vowel sounds which are droning and dreary for example curse, appals, woe, blasts. This is very effective in creating a droning miserable sound to portray his view on London. On the other hand Wordsworth wants to do the complete opposite with his syllables, he wants them to be short sharp and jolly to convey his idea of the beauty he does this by using such words as glittering, bright, and sky.

One of the only similarities combing the two poems are the tense in which the poems are written, the poets want to communicate the feeling of the reader actually being there so they use the effective present tense so that we can feel what they felt when they saw their view.

The poems are similar because they are both describing the city of London, but the actual content and what the poets are describing is not that similar. William Blake describes the people of London mostly, he talks of the harlot, and how the sexual corruption in London strikes him most. He also tells of the 'mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe'. After travelling about the public streets of London near the Thames River and characterizing the features of weakness, sorrow, and grief, in the people he passes the poet delves deeper into the issues of t

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Approximate Word count = 913
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English