Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

“Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” is a Petrarchan sonnet by the English poet William Wordsworth. Originally published in 1807, the poem is part of a collection entitled Poems, in Two Volumes. In the sonnet, the speaker describes a view of London from a spot on the bridge early in the morning. The speaker can see the spires and domes of the city “steep” (Line 9) in sunlight and can watch the river flow unfettered while the houses sleep. The speaker declares that this sight brings him “a calm so deep” (Line 11), deeper than anything else he has experienced in the natural world.

Wordsworth was one of the most influential poets of his time, establishing the Romantic Movement with the book Lyrical Ballads co-authored with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The goal of the Romantics, which Wordsworth articulated in his “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads,” was to use common language to explore and express the inner workings of the individual, often in response to the sights and wonders of the natural world. Other poets of the Romantic Movement include Coleridge, and later poets such as Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats.