Critical Analysis for Composed Upon Westminster Bridge
William Wordsworth growing up spending most of this time alone and almost always around nature, typically writes of how we are affecting nature. However, in the poem Composed upon Westminster Bridge we see a different side of Wordsworth were he describes a city so still and peaceful the beauty is hard to pass unnoticed. Throughout Composed upon Westminster Bridge Wordsworth uses imagery, figures of speech and tone. In this poem we see a new side to Wordsworth’s writing, Wordsworth uses imagery as a way to make us see and feel what he is as he looks over Westminster Bridge.
He uses visual imagery to make us picture the beauty he is it witnessing. “All bright and glittering in the smokeless air”, he sees that even the things we never thought to have beauty can prove to be some of the most beautiful things. “Never did a sun more beautiful steep”, nature has a way of taking the most simple things and making them look of something of great beauty. In line eleven Wordsworth uses the sense of inter emotions. Saying “Ne’re saw I, never felt a calm so deep”, what he saw that morning made him feel so at ease.
It is as though he is surprised at how the simplest things from nature can sway our emotions. Wordsworth uses personification in several places in the poem, in reference to the city, sun, river, and houses. He creates the impression that nature is a living being with a soul. In line twelve, “the river glideth at his own sweet will”, is saying nature has a way of taking its own path and journey when it’s not corrupted by humans. The beauty of such simple things can be seen better when all is still.
With the tranquility we can view nature’s natural beauty, like said in line thirteen, “Dear God! The very houses seem asleep”. Nature has a way of dressing the city with beauty that we cannot always imagine, “this city now doth, like a garment”, Wordsworth is using a simile to compare the morning beauty to clothing. The manner in which Composed upon Westminster Bridge is written shows a few different tones. Such as, in the first three lines he is showing admiration for the beautiful sight he sees. It’s as though he’s praising the simplicity of the beauty.
Also shown in line nine, “never did the sun more beautifully steep”, is a tone of praise and awe at just how beautiful a sight it was. The last four lines Wordsworth writes give the tone of peace. How the city was so calm that for those moments it was peaceful. The way Wordsworth uses imagery, figures of speech and tone in the writing of Composed upon Westminster Bridge is how he can get other to feel as if they were there that morning to see and feel what he did. This poem shows that there is beauty in everything, but that to sometimes see this beauty we must look harder to find it.
