Composed Upon Westminster Bridge

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With close reference to the words used by the poet, discuss how he conveys his appreciation of the beauty of the world around him. In the sonnet “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge” by William Wordsworth, the poet conveys his appreciation of the world around him as he is amazed by a view from Westminster Bridge. Wordsworth’s use of word-choice and poetic techniques emphasises his message of acknowledging beauty in fleeting moments. This poem is composed as a Petrarchan sonnet with fourteen lines in the rhyme scheme ‘abbaabbaacdcdca’. The first eight lines of this poem introduces the incomparable beauty of the scene and then describes it, the last six lines show how moved the narrator is by the unparalleled allurement of the view. The narrator’s tone of voice changes at line 9 as it becomes more passionate with their use of exclamation as opposed to the first eight lines where they appear taken aback. This development of ideas from the octave to the setset brings a personal elaboration which expressively shows the reader to how awe-inspiring the scenario is. Wordsworth structures this sonnet to create a casual and conversational tone of voice from the first person narrative that brings across the narrator’s admiration for the scenario. The rhythmic scheme and loose iambic pentameter gives it a natural movement throughout the poem. This causes the flow of this poem to make the reader feel that the sense of admiration expressed by the narrator is instinctive and unforced. Woodsworth’s choice of words effectively display the narrator’s appreciation of the scenario. A prominent diction the poet adopts is use of hyperboles throughout the sonnet. The narrator states that there is nothing else “more fair” on Earth, that it is touching in its “majesty”– an exaggeration that shows the reader that the narrator was caught up in the passing moment and the astonishment of the
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