A Note on Wordsworth’s Sonnet, “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802”

Abstract

Alluding to the sources of Wordsworth’s sonnet in the Book of Job and Dorothy Wordsworth’s Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals, I establish how the so-called Wordsworthian sublime can be deduced. In the former, the sublime comes into play in private retrospections at an individual level, incurred after the ramifications of a tragedy sets in. In the latter, Wordsworth is interpreted as subserving Dorothy’s observations on London. Her identifications with the city as ‘beautiful’ is carefully abstracted and idealized under the banner of his sublime, creating the possibility of interaction, subjugation and hierarchical creation.