Abstract:London，the capital city of Britain has often been depicted by many English painters and praised by lots of English poets. However, as the same city, under almost the same historical background, London was perceived from different perspectives in Blake’s and Wordsworth’s eyes. “London” and “Composed upon Westminster Bridge” are most fantastic poems of Blake and Wordsworth respectively, both of whom are English romantic representatives. On one hand, both poems chose London as the depicting object, sharing some similarities in writing techniques, writing background, etc. On the other hand, through close analysis and comparison, we find the two poets show sharp contrasting views about London. A dark, 1ifeless and suffering city of London was displayed by Blake; on the contrary, in Wordsworth’s poem, a very beautiful, energetic picture of London in the morning was presented before reader’s eyes by Wordsworth. Blake intended to inform the readers of the evil social conditions at that time, while Wordsworth tried to affect the reader with a sense of wonderment at the natural beauty created with a sunrise. Besides, we could find other differences in themes, writing styles, perspectives, poets’ mode, overall tones, etc. This paper attempts to explore the similarities and differences in two poems, especially from the microcosmic and macrocosmic views, with a view to dwelling on the similarities and differences in poetry creation notion and styles between the two romantic poets.

Keywords: William Blake  William Wordsworth  “London”  “Composed upon Westminster Bridge”  comparison

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 William Blake and His “London”-1

1.2 William Wordsworth and His “Composed upon Westminster Bridge”-2

1.3 Literature Review-2

Chapter Two Similarities between “London” and “Composed upon Westminster Bridge”-4

2.1 The Same Objective—London-4

2.2 Subtle Reference to Religion-5

2.3 Reflection of Industrial Revolution-5

Chapter Three Differences between “London” and “Composed upon Westminster Bridge”-7

3.1 Different Images-7

3.2 Different Ways of Description-7

3.3 Depicting Different Time in a Day-8

3.4 Different Perspectives-8

3.5 Different Tones-9

3.6 Reasons for Different Attitudes toward the Same City-9

Chapter Four Conclusion-11

References-12