Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem

This post aims to provide an analysis and stanza wise summary of Upon Westminster Bridge poem, by the famous Romantic writer William Wordsworth.

Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem

“Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802”

~ William Wordsworth

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

William Wordsworth, one of the most famous poets of the Romantic era, was born in Cockermouth, Cumbria, England on April 7, 1770.
His mother died when he was 7, and he was an orphan at 13.
He graduated in 1791, from Cambridge University. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)
He was a great follower of the French Revolution that began in 1789.
In the year 1795, Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge along with whom he composed his famous collection Lyrical Ballads (1798).
The Lyrical Ballads helped Romanticism take a hold on English Poetry.
In the same year of the publication of the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth also began writing his autobiographical poem The Prelude, and published it posthumously in 1850)
While working on The Prelude, Wordsworth produced other poetry like “Lucy”.
For the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth wrote a preface, which later came to be seen as a manifesto of the Romantic Movement. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)
He published his another collection, Poems, in Two Volumes (1807).
In 1813, he was named a distributor of stamps and moved his family to a new home in the Lake District. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)
In 1843, Wordsworth became England’s poet laureate, a position he held for the rest of his life.
He died at the age of 80 on April 23,1850, at his home in Rydal Mount, Westmorland, England

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

“Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” is a sonnet composed by William Wordsworth. It is a 1802, Petrarchan sonnet also termed as Italian sonnet which contains fourteen lines. The lines are divided into eight lines subjection (called an octave), being observation, followed by a six line subjection (called a sestet), the conclusion. This poem follows the rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA CDCDCD, and is written in a loose iambic pentameter, consisting of five (“penta”) pairs of unstressed and stressed beats (“iambs”).

“Upon Westminster Bridge” is a very straightforward poem, where the speaker praises the beauty of the city, referencing to the bridge over the River Thames. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)

LINES 1-8

“Earth has not anything to show more fair

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty

This City now doth, like a garment, wear

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie

Open unto the field, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.” (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)

While crossing the Westminster Bridge, the speaker of the poem states that until now he has not found anything more beautiful a scene on the entire planet. For him a thing as “fair’’ as this has not yet arrived in his life. He really means something like, at that moment of time it was only that scene that occupied him. The ending of the first line with a colon tells the readers that now Wordsworth is going to give a description for such a statement that is being made in the first line. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)

He goes on to declare that anyone who would pass by the scene without looking at it is a ‘dull’ soul and is boring not to have noticed a sight ‘so touching’. Wordsworth, whom we can also refer to as the speaker of the poem, now tell the readers that the city now wears the beauty of the morning like a ‘garment’ or a coat. The bare and silent morning sky like a garment unfurls over the city. These lines imply that may be it is not London itself, but the morning view of the city. It is not the city that is beautiful but the morning unfurling of the city that makes it beautiful.

Referring to morning scene of the city, Wordsworth mentions ‘silent’ and ‘bare’, from which the reader can relate to the tranquil and calm phase of the city away from its busy and noisy life of the day. The poet’s use of the word ‘bare’ though contrast with the image of the city wearing a garment in line four, but it may also be referred form the word that now, in the morning, the city lies unadorned by people, noise and pollution of the day. He goes on lists the things with which the city is crowded by, ‘ships’, ‘towers’, ‘domes’, ‘theatres’ and ‘temples’.

A harmonizing effect is then portrayed between the natural and man-made world, with the buildings in the city, with the great feats of engineering lying all within one portion of the city, that is ‘open unto the field, and to the sky’. As the morning sun peeps into the city, everything in the city lie ‘bright’ and keeps ‘glittering’. The air is now divine, fresh and smokeless, unlike the ugly smoked-choked air of the day. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)

LINES 9-14

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! (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)

The speaker returns to claim again that there is no sight as beautiful as what viewed from the Westminster Bridge. The vertical rays of sunlight falling all over the city also covers the other parts of the countryside including the ‘valley’, ‘rock’ and ‘hill’. Wordsworth says never ever in his life he has seen such a scene, nor has he felt such calmness which he has gained from viewing the scene. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)

Again he personifies the river and describes it as a patient person who does not rush, like other city man, but allows himself to take his own time. He moves according to “his own sweet will”, just as the river of Thames below the bridge which is patient in its flow and not rapid. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)

He is so astonished by the beauty of that sight and the peaceful silence that he cries pout to God as if he is blessed to have no people around him. Personifying, the houses as sleep he tends to depict that the people inside those houses are sleeping at this early hour. The view is reaching out and touching his soul. The final line of the poem gives the sense that London is the heart of England and it is lying still deprived of any hustle and bustle of the city life in the day. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)

MORE ABOUT THE POEM

“Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802”, is beautiful composition about natural beauty by William Wordsworth. It was first published in 1807, in The Collection Poems, In Two Volumes. The poem was actually written while Wordsworth was travelling to France with his sister, Dorothy Wordsworth, on July 31, 1802 and on his way from London to Dover, he stopped his horse carriage on Westminster Bridge and he composed this poem. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)

The poem speaks about the speakers encounter with nature during the morning time when he is in the city of London upon the very famous Westminster Bridge. The poem illustrates the need of small discontinuations from the busy hustle, bustle of city life. Wordsworth as is known mostly for writing about nature in his poems, although picks the city of London in this poem, very spectacularly depicts how nature plays a pivotal role in leading a go stress free no matter how much people and the city progresses. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)

This poem is thus, a representation of nature in the city of London. But, it is not London, as a whole that Wordsworth here in the poem is admiring, he is admiring the ardent beauty of the city during the morning hours, he is admiring the silence, the calmness and the pollution free air which is hardly noticeable during the day when the city wakes up. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)

FIGURES OF SPEECH USED

Hyperbole: Hyperboles are exaggerated statements and Wordsworth is seen using this figure of speech largely in this poem. This is evident when he says “Earth has not anything to show more fair:” Here, he wants to tell us that there is nothing more beautiful than the early morning view of the city of London from the Westminster Bridge. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)
Inversion: Poets often change the proper grammatical order of words in the line of a poem, in order to make the lines rhyme or to emphasize upon something. The figure of speech in such line is called an Inversion or an Anastrophe. For this we can consider the line, “Dull would be of soul who could pass by’. The words in this line of the poem have been arranged in order to create a poetic effect. We can find the use of Inversion again in the line, “Never did sun more beautifully steep”.
Alliteration: Alliteration means the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. For example, Wordsworth in the line “A sight so touching in its majesty”, uses alliteration because the sound of letter ‘s’ here, is repeated. Again, in the line, “Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie”, alliteration is used as the sound of letter ‘t’ is repeated.
Personification: It is the description of an object or an idea as if it had human characteristics. Wordsworth personifies the city of London wearing a new garment. Again river Thames is personified as someone who is gliding on his own free will, and the houses of London as people who are fast asleep. (Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem)
Simile: It is a figure of speech where to unlike words are compared using words such as like or as. Wordsworth can be seen using simile in the line, “This city now doth, like a garment, wear”. In this line there is direct comparison between the beauty of the morning and a piece of cloth.

Summary of Upon Westminster Bridge Poem