SONNET: COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER

BRIDGE
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

B Y: M A R WA N , F I N N , C A L U M , C E L I N E
SONNET

• A poem of 14 lines

• Usually 10 syllables per line

• Specific rhyme scheme

• Two major types

• Italian (Petrarchan) and English

• Italian: abba, abba, cdecde or cdccdc or cdcdcd

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

• Born on April 7th 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 are 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 a b b a c d 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