The Representation of London in William Blake's 'London' and William Wordsworth's 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge'

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Wuppertal, language: English, abstract: This work is about the representation of London in William Blake's 'London' and William Wordsworth's 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802'. The reason for choosing these poems is the contradictoriness at first glance but at second view opens a new perspective, for the two poems complete each other to a general and detailed overview of London and its two different sights. It should display how both poets see London through different perspectives, sum up and compare these differences. One question which could arise while reading the poems could be which of the representations is more realistic for the time. Furthermore it should give an answer to the question, what the authors intended by writing the poems and discuss if there are different intentions. The analysis of the poems focuses mainly on the representation of London. The results will be compared and the questions, which were brought up in this introduction will be answered. 1. Introduction 2. The representation of London in William Blake's 'London' 3. The representation of London in 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge September 3, 1802' 4. Comparison of the representation of London in both poems 5. Conclusion 6. Bibliography 7. Appendix - Damon, Samual Foster. 1988 [1973]. A Blake dictionary. The ideas and symbols of William Blake. Hannover [etal.]: Univ. Pr. of New England. - Stillinger, Jack & Lynch, Deidre, Shauna. 'The Romantic Period'. In: W.W.Norton& Company, Inc. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1363 - 1884. Eightgh Edition. - Wolfreys, Julian. 1998. Writing London. The Trace of the Urban Text from Blake to Dickens. Houndmills [etal.]: PALGRAVE.