Poetry Friday 15

This week I'd like offer a poem which I find picturesque - I can visualise the scene described in this poem.

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

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!

William Wordsworth


I love the way Wordsworth describes the city as wearing the dawn as if it was a person wrapped in bright clothing, and I can sense the stillness of the city, with the only movement being the river gliding gently beneath the bridge upon which the poet stands.