SIMILAR AND DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF THE CITY IN “LONDON” BY WILLIAM BLAKE, COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, SEPTEMBER 3, 1802” BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, AND IN “IMPRESSION DU MATIN” BY OSCAR WILDE

SIMILAR AND DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF THE CITY IN “LONDON” BY WILLIAM BLAKE, COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, SEPTEMBER 3, 1802” BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, AND IN “IMPRESSION DU MATIN” BY OSCAR WILDE

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The image of the city appears in the literature of all cultural periods, but it often varies depending on historical context, prevailing ideas and the personal style of the author. City images dominate in the periods of Romantic and Decadent, however, the authors` view towards it definitely differs. This essay closely looks at English Romantic authors William Blake`s (1757-1827) poem “London” (Songs of Experience, 1794), William Wordsworth`s (1770-1850) sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802, (Poems in Two Volumes, 1807) and Decadence author Oscar Wilde`s (1854-1900) poem “Impression du matin” (1881). Each poem gives a different message and a view, so the main point of the essay is to analyse the similarities and differences of city images in poems.
To begin with, both “London” and Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802, are written in Romantic period, but the each poem represents completely different view of the city. The speaker in Blake`s poem expresses negative attitude towards the city and this is seen from the first lines:
“I wander thro` each charter`d street, near where the charter`d Thames does flow”.

He sees London city as a marked, divided place, where everything is owned, and there is no free space for nature and people. This is the consequence of 18th century Industrial Revolution, and the speaker is definitely critical about that. Then it follows the concern about the people, living in the city, mentioning marks of weakness and woe on their faces. Also, in the second stanza we see many negative words, which are associated with people- cry, fear, ban, manacles. These emotions show, that people are suffering, and the rise of technology and economy was achieved on their account, but people`s lives didn`t get better. Furthermore, the third stanza gives us more information about the city image. The speaker mentions “Blackning Church appals”, and this might be understood as another reference to the consequence of Industrial revolution. The coal, which was broadly used in 18th century, darkens the buildings and makes the city look black, gloomy, and dull. The fact, that the church is appalling, puzzles, because it supposed to care and help for people. At this point, we may notice not only dull and gloomy buildings, but also a moral decline, which hovers around the city. What is more, a common problem of prostitution appears in the last stanza:
“How the youthful Harlots curse blasts the new- born Infants tear”. Prostitutes cursing their own babies support the existence of moral decline. In the last line, the worst catastrophe, plague, is mentioned. This image gives us a thought, that the world is harsh: the people are suffering and their pain only ends in terrible death. Seeing all these negative images of misery, blood, depression, and death, we can make an assumption, that living in the city gives people not only psychological, but also physical pain and is disastrous.
Furthermore, an entire different attitude is seen in William Wordsworth`s sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802. The poem begins by praising some Earth`s creation:
“Earth has not anything to show more fair: dull would be of soul who could pass by a sight so touching in its majesty”. Knowing that Wordsworth is a poet of Romantic period, we automatically expect that the praised element would be an untouched nature, natural landscape. Then, the following line reveals, that the praised object is a city, which is introduced in a capital letter:
“This City now doth, like a garment wear the beauty of the morning; silent bare”. By capitalizing this word, Wordsworth, unlike Blake, emphasizes its greatness and shows positive attitude towards it. In this quote we also see a personification of a city; it is compared to a man, wearing a garment- by using this stylistic device, the speaker accents that the city is not an artificial creation of a human, but it is vital. In the following lines, personification is used again:
“Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie open unto fields, and the sky”.
This also gives vitality to the city image and mentioned buildings. We can also see a contrast between the vital and personified image of a city in this poem, and chartered streets image in “London”. Furthermore, in Blake`s poem, one of the most important building, church, is described as “blacking”, when in the sonnet, the buildings are represented with words: “ All bright and glittering in smokeless air”. This description shows us, how the speaker admires the city view, and has only positive feelings, while in “London” the only feeling the speaker feels is hatred for the city. Another contrast is in the mood of both poems: in Blake`s poem the words like cry, fear, blood, curse created definitely negative and dark mood, while in Wordsworth`s poem we see the words like calm, still, sweet, and it creates peaceful, soft emotion. In the following lines, the speaker admires nature elements:
“Never did sun more beautifully steep in his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill”.
The mentioning of nature doesn`t interrupt in portraying and praising the city image, both elements are not in contrast, but together make a perfect combination and harmony, which is very pleasing for the speaker and he expresses it in words:” Ne`er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!”.By showing, what great feelings are caused by admiring both images of city and nature, Wordsworth shows us that people should not be so set against the city; they should learn to see the positive side of it and to admire that. This point goes completely against Romantic attitude, which criticized city for being artificial, and a wrong, unhappy place for people, like Blake shows in “London”. Both poems show us absolutely different world-view of the same cultural period and separate images of the same city.
The third poem that is going to be discussed in this essay is Decadence author Oscar Wilde`s “Impression Du Matin”. The first lines reveals, in what time of a day the city is depicted:
“The Thames nocturne of blue and gold changed to a Harmony in grey”.
Nocturne, a musical composition, symbolizes night, which is over and the dawn is breaking. But the speaker is not very satisfied with that, because when speaking about the night, he uses luxurious colours of blue and gold, but he uses a simple and dull grey colour. So, unlike the speaker in Wordsworth`s sonnet, who is fancies and admires the dawn; a person in Wilde`s poem misses the night and thinks of it as more beautiful and mysterious. He continues to describe daybreak by noticing ordinary, casual elements- a barge, a wharf, country wagons, and again, there is no admiration from his side. He is not critical or miserable, like the speaker in “London”, he just feels dull, an outsider from what is happening around him. The speaker acts like that, because when the night is over, it takes away the entire secret, mysterious shadows, leaving less place for imagination and revealing all the hideous and ugly things. One of those nasty things is yellow fog, mentioned in the second stanza. This fog is a result of Industrial revolution, like “blackning Church”, which is polluted by coal in Blake`s poem. The fog is personified:
“The yellow fog came creeping down the bridges, till the houses` walls seemed to change in shadows St. Paul`s loomed like a bubble o`er the town”.
The fog is compared to a wicked ghost or spirit and is definitely polluting the air of the city, but the speaker is not concerned about that- he shows no emotion and just observes the view. ‘Lyrical I’ remains cold and distant, when he describes a prostitute in the street:
“But one pale woman all alone, the daylight kissing her wan hair, loitered beneath the gas lamps` flare, with lips of flame and heart of stone”. She is the only person in the poem, unlike in “London”, where the speaker mentions a lot of people, and the woman gets a longest description, but not because the speaker cares about her, or wants to moralize, but simply because she is something more unusual in these dull, gloomy streets. The speaker notices her imperfections- pale skin and wan hair and this description becomes a proof, that the daylight removes all the mystery and beauty, exposing the flaws of people, and nasty image of the city. ‘Lyrical I’ notices not only a prostitute, but also a bird: “A bird flew to the glistering roofs and sang”. The bird has an ability to fly away from all the hideous, dull things and to sit and watch the view from the roof top. This is the thing the speaker wants- to enjoy his favourite mysterious time of night and to be distant from all the earthly boring things. He is not critical about the reality view, like Blake, but also not impressed about it, like Wordsworth.
In conclusion, the image of the city plays an important role when finding out more about the cultural periods of Romantic and Decadence and individual views of the authors. These three poems have some similarities but each of them sends a different message and describes a distinct image of the same city- William Blake states a critical view towards the city, William Wordsworth is idealistic about it, and Oscar Wilde expresses realistic attitude.

List Of References
Abrams, M. H, et. al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 2. 5th ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton and co., 1986.

References: Abrams, M. H, et. al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 2. 5th ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton and co., 1986.