Westminster Bridge Analysis

‘Westminster Bridge’ and ‘Report to Wordsworth’

‘Westminster Bridge’ is an Arch Bridge located in London and describes the nature and the beauties of London. ‘Report to Wordsworth’ by Boey Kim Cheng is replying to William Wordsworth about the sonnet that Wordsworth previously written back in September 3rd 1802, describing how nature is suffering due to human behavior and greed. It is proven that Westminster Bridge is a sonnet as the poem has a total of 14 lines.

Wordsworth back in September 3rd 1802 was a romantic poet who expresses his love towards nature and man-kind. There weren’t many cities nearby during when Wordsworth wrote the poem, he wrote about how beautiful London was of a city especially when there is no one around and the beauty

On the 11th line Cheng “Poetry and piety have begun to fall, as Nature’s mighty heart is lying still”. Piety is referred to religion. Wordsworth was a Romantic poet since Romantic poets’ lusts on the idea of the respect of ‘Mother Nature’. Without nature, humanity wouldn’t be to grow to be as spiritual and loving; and that the world has gone to waste, that god cannot even help humanity as all faith in humanity is destroyed. “The lying heart of Nature is lying still”. Cheng implies that the world has not completely “died” yet, but is ‘dying’. This line contradicts with the final line of ‘Westminster Bridge’. Wordsworth’s definition of lying still is that ‘Mother Nature’ is at peace. And on Cheng’s perspective of lying still is that ‘Nature’ is beginning to destroy humanity. “O see the widening in the sky” creates a visual imagery of the ozone layer from the laid waste we live in. In the final line of the poem, Cheng finishes off with a powerful quote “God is laboring to utter his last cry”. The cry could go two different ways: one, the cry could symbolize the sense of the world’s suffering and sorrow. Two, the cry could foreshadow disasters such as floods and tsunami due to the wasted land that humanity has created. God has punished