Upon Westminster Bridge Analysis

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Upon Westminster Bridge

A Romantic Sonnet

Lesson Goals

- You can argue why Upon Westminster Bridge is a sonnet by identifying the sonnet features in the poem.

- You can identify multiple literary devices in the poem.

If time allows:

- You can describe the backgroud to the poem England in 1819.

Sonnets?

What is the theme of Upon Westminster Bridge?

What is the function of nature in Upon Westminster Bridge?

Upon Westminster Bridge is a sonnet of which type?

1. Italian
2. English
3. None of the above
4. Both A and B are correct

Upon Westminster Bridge

Earth has not any thing 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 fields, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

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!

What is the metre of this line?

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Earth has not any thing 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 fields, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

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!

Questions?

England in 1819

Look back in anger.

England in 1819

- King George III --> 

          Weak ruler, lost the American                                      colonies.

          Mentally disabled in old age. 

- Corn Laws 

           Protect prices --> good for land                                 owners, not good  for common people.

- Peterloo Massacre

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying King;

Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow

Through public scorn,—mud from a muddy spring;

Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know,

But leechlike to their fainting country cling

Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow.

A people starved and stabbed in th' untilled field;

An army, whom liberticide and prey

Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield;

Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;

Religion Christless, Godless—a book sealed;

A senate, Time’s worst statute, unrepealed—

Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may

Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.

1. An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying King;
   
2. Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
   
3. Through public scorn,—mud from a muddy spring;
   
4. Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know,
   
5. But leechlike to their fainting country cling
   
6. Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow.
   
7. A people starved and stabbed in th' untilled field;
   
8. An army, whom liberticide and prey
   
9. Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield;
   
10. Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
    
11. Religion Christless, Godless—a book sealed;
    
12. A senate, Time’s worst statute, unrepealed—
    
13. Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may
    
14. Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.