Composed upon Westminster Bridge

William Wordsworth · 1802 (published 1807)

Catalog grade guidance: 6–12 — Petrarchan sonnet; some archaic forms.

16 content lines · 118 words · Est. recitation about 1 min 6 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg #8774: Poems in Two Volumes, Volume 1 (1807).Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

14. COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE,
    Sept. 3, 1803.


  Earth has not any thing to shew 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 splendor 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!