Wordsworth's Nature

In “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1803,” Wordsworth expresses how London, even with its urban cityscape, becomes part of nature in the early morning. London in 1802 during the industrial revolution would more likely be described as dirty, busy, and manmade - the opposite of "nature". He uses rhythm, sound, word choice, imagery, and personification to express the natural beauty of the city and his admiration for it.

Examples: Line 1 begins the poem with an imperfect iambic pentameter that continues in every line until the last line, where the iambic pentameter is perfect. This imperfection in rhythm creates a conversational tone, expresses a feeling of awe, and emphasizes the words that are stressed when they should not be, such as “Earth” in line 1.

The rhymes of the words “fair” (1), “wear” (4), “bare” (5), and “air” (8) set up a central idea of the poem: by wearing the morning air, the city becomes fair, or beautiful, because in the early morning the city is bare, or naked and calm, without all the people making it loud and busy.

Wordsworth presents a paradox: even though nature is alive and active, the city is more alive and beautiful because it is calm and sleeping. The city has a heart and is personified. In the morning when the houses are asleep, the “mighty heart is lying still” (14), yet this heart is most alive when it is in the still of the morning. Wordsworth expresses that the heart of the city only truly beats when the city is asleep. Not only is the calm city the most beautiful in the morning, it is also the most alive - more alive and beautiful than "nature" itself.