The splendour of London

William Wordsworth is one of England's greatest poets. He is best known for his poems about the natural world. He was born in 1770 in Cockermouth, a town in the northwest of England. The town lies on the edge of an area known as The Lake District - so called because it is mountainous with stunning lakes filling the valleys.

Wordsworth spent his childhood roaming the hills and valleys, and it is not surprising that his poetry features beautiful scenery. 'Upon Westminster Bridge' is rather different in that it is written from the point of view of the poet standing on a bridge over the River Thames in the heart of London. Nevertheless, we can see the echoes and feelings of a man who is used to celebrating natural beauty.

The poem is a sonnet. This is a traditional form for poetry. A sonnet always has 14 lines, which are called iambic pentameters. These are lines of 10 (occasionally 11) syllables and the regular iambic rhythm. This consists of a regular pattern of unstressed/stressed syllables: try tapping your hand on the table as you read the lines. You will hear the regular beat.

The rhyme scheme also follows a set pattern: abba, abba, cdcdcd. This helps you when you are working out the meaning of the poem as you can treat the groups of lines rather like paragraphs in prose. You will find a theme for each group of lines.

The poem opens with a grand proclamation of the beauty of London:

'Earth has not anything to show more fair:

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by