SONNET COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE WILLIAM WORDSWORTH BY

SONNET: COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE WILLIAM WORDSWORTH BY: MARWAN, FINN, CALUM, CELINE

SONNET • A poem of 14 lines • Usually 10 syllables per line • Specific rhyme scheme • Two major types • Italian (Petrarchan) and English • Italian: abba, cdecde or cdccdc or cdcdcd

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH • Born on April 7 th 1770 • In Wordsworth house in England in the Lake District Very Scenic Region • William Wordsworth expresses his feelings about the scenery in his country as he looks off a very famous bridge the Westminster Bridge.

SENSE • A scenic view • Looking off Westminster Bridge • Comparison between the city and the countryside

IMAGERY • On lines 6 -8 there is a lot of imagery throughout, this helps the reader to picture where the poem is being set. • In that imagery there is a lot of building descriptions, this paints a picture that there a lot of places in sight. • In line 12 he says ‘the river glideth at its own sweet will’ this shows us that it’s quite a calm and peaceful place. Could this be referring to the Thames? • There is more calm and serenity in lines 9 and 10 ‘never did sun more beautifully steep, in his first splendor, rock, valley, or hill’.

TONE • Peaceful, Amazed, Positive • ‘fair’, ‘touching’, ‘majesty’ • ‘bright’, ‘glittering’, ‘smokeless’ air • the river ‘glideth’ • ‘mighty’ heart

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE • Simile on line 4 • Personification on line 5, 9, 12 • Metaphor on line 10

STRUCTURE • Rhyme scheme: • a b b a c d c d (Petrarchan Sonnet) • Iambic pentameter • Enjambment

EMOTION • In the first half of the poem the reader gets a feeling of awe with descriptions such as “Earth has not anything to show more fair” and then listing all the buildings he could see. • There is a feeling of calmness and peace throughout the second half of the poem such as in line 11 where he says ‘ne’er have I felt a calm so deep!’ and then goes on in line 12 to add to the sense of calmness and peace ‘the river glideth at its own sweet will’ and into line 13 ‘Dear God! The very houses seem asleep’.

INTENTION • Paint a mental picture to the reader of brightness and beauty • Wordsworth is trying to show the beauty of the scenery by comparing it to other things