Worthy Words on Westminster Bridge
Last night there was a very pleasing programme on BBCFour from the A Poets Guide to Britain series. It was Episode 1* about William Wordsworth and it featured his famous sonnet, Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802. It goes like this:
Earth has not anything 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!
The producers shot much footage on Westminster Bridge itself. However, this is not the bridge that Wordsworth knew. Today’s Westminster Bridge, designed by Thomas Page, was opened in 1862. The poet would have pondered from old Westminster Bridge, which was opened in 1750, the first new bridge in what is now Central London to be erected in over 600 years. It was famously celebrated in oils by Turner, Canaletto and others. Here’s the Canaletto.
* BBC iPlayer: in time this item may in time become a dead link.
Excellent post Mike. The first WestminsBridge was built by Swiss Engineer Charles Labelye who then built Westminster Bridge Road, using Dutch techniques to build the first major road across Lambeth Marsh. The first Westminster Bridge is also the one that William Blake would have crossed on his way home to Hercules Buildings. All part of my Waterloo Walk with Old Maps
Thanks Ken. It was also built nearly a century late, Charles II having taken a bribe from vested interests to scotch an earlier attempt.
For some reason, and without my bidding, I always hear the first line of that poem to the tune of the hymn ‘All people that on earth do dwell’, with all the 32′ diapason stops pulled out on my mental pipe organ. Unfortunate, as the poem contains one too many syllables to fit.
You can always replace “not anything” with “nothing”, doesn’t hurt the line too much.
@Ken @Will Not sure why I had to approve your responses, both of you having posted before. WordPress thing, hope it will improve its manners in future.
My understandiong of wordpress is that you have to approve all replies, which is fine by me. By the way Mike you have once again written a post that gets a lot of us stirred well done!
Thanks again, Ken, and you’re welcome. No, I think once you’ve done one, approval should be automatic thereafter, as has happened in this case, I’m pleased to say.
Or maybe it puts you on some sort of timer, who knows?
Was wondering if you had some clarifications to some research I’ve done on the construction and opening of the “new” Westminster Bridge. I have found some conflicting articles and hoped you would have answers! Thanks!
If you’d like to email me your queries to admin@londonhistorians.org I’ll see what I can find out. One of our members is Brian Cookson, author of the excellent Crossing the River. He might know.