Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth and Kensington Market by Afua Cooper

I am going to be analysing and comparing two different poems. The first is called ‘Upon Westminster Bridge’ by William Wordsworth and the other is called ‘Kensington Market,’ by Afua Cooper. We have been covering different styles of writing including poems and imagery. Upon Westminster Bridge is about the imagery of a town in the morning as it talks of a town possibly London ‘waking up. ‘ The other poem, Kensington Market is about a market which maybe anywhere in the world and shows different attitudes and atmospheres. Kensington Market is describing what a market is like and how the market is different in different places.

All of these are various skills used to portray each poem. The poem Upon Westminster Bridge is a sonnet, which is a poem with 14 lines. It is has a rhyming patter. It stars of with lines 1 and 4 at the end rhyming and towards the end it rhymes on all the lines. “Earth has not anything to show more fair” which is the first line and “This City now doth, like a garment, wear,” which is the fourth line. Towards the end the poem rhyme on every sing line as shown: “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” The poem by William is unusual as it talks of a city as it is waking but a city cannot really wake up so this is seen as imagery or personification. This poem uses a lot of personification as I will cover later. Kensington Market by Afua Cooper is a very different poem to William’s. This poem has various different techniques. It is unlike the other poem in the way that it does not show as much imagery and uses different techniques.

The poem has many lists of food and it also uses repetition; “colours, colours, colours everywhere. This is the use of repetition, which is effective as it shows a more realistic picture of the scene so in his way there is imagery but not personification. It also uses a technique of listing foods and changing atmospheres to lead us around the market. The mood on Upon Westminster Bridge is quite bright but shows a side of tiredness and break of dawn. It talks of a city waking up; “This City now doth, like a garment, wear, the beauty of the morning; silent, bare. ” This shows that the city is waking and it is morning which shows the side of tiredness.

The poet uses commas every so often for the reader to gather what is happening and to show a new piece of imagery. In this piece he use many different pieces of imagery and personification as shown n the quote above; as a city cannot wear clothes but it is waking and getting ready for the day ahead and in this way gives a bright and happy mood. But the second part says “the morning; silent, bare” which shows the side of tiredness. Here are some of the quotes he uses to create imagery within the piece to make us feel what the city in the morning feels like: “Never did sun more beautifully steep

The river glideth at his own sweet will: Dear God! the very houses seem asleep. ” This shows personification and imagery. Firstly it talks about the sun and how it relates to something we can understand and is not possible for the sun to actually do, in this way imagery is created. The same technique is used for the other quotes, as it shows the way something does something in a way that is not possible for it to actually do. “A sight so touching in its majesty. ” This quote which seems to be normal is actually a paradox which means the sentence is contradicting itself, so this technique can be used to set a mood as well.

This poem was written very well by William Wordsworth on September 3rd 1802. Kensington market has a different sort of mood. It is very lively and all the people, as you can feel by the way the poem is written, are hustling and bustling. This mood is created by the language. A few times it says phrases of different cultures to show the different market; “Whappen” and “Como Estas” or “yeah man”. These all create a mood within the market. This poem has very little imagery but one does stand out; “colours of scents,” this is imagery as if you can see the colours of everything around you but you can’t see scents so this is imagery.

This piece does not use punctuation that much as she may want the piece to flow. Both these poems are different and use a different technique but are both effective. This poem was written by Afua Cooper in Upon Westminster Bridge is a short sonnet with a lot of imagery and makes you picture the scene through personification and similes. So imagery is created through comparisons and how something reacts. There is no use of repetition or lists in this poem. Kensington market has very little imager and only one piece as shown above.

This may be to show the feeling of the place through words used in the atmosphere of the local market. This poem leads us round the different markets rather than using imagery in a way of personification. It uses short lines, and appeals to different senses; sight sound and smell. I think that both of thee poems are good in their own way due to different techniques and the techniques used suit the poem for each better. My personal favourite is Kensington Market as you can actually picture the markets and how they are run and what it feels like to be there. In this way I like Afua Cooper’s poem but both are good in their own way.