William Wordsworth, 1770 - 1850
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, 3 September 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!
W. Somerset Maugham's novel Of Human Bondage (P654-5) contains a lovely description of daybreak seem from Westminster Bridge c.1898 which (surely knowingly?) pays homage to this poem.
Site: Composed upon Westminster Bridge (1 memorial)
SW1, Westminster Bridge
This plaque is on the north side of Westminster Bridge, on a pier closer to the west bank than the east. All the piers have these decorative lanterns and we believe they should all have an ornate panel below but a number have gone missing, as here.
When we visited in 2018 every available space on the lantern was graffitied or stickered, and dozens of mini padlocks were somehow attached. Much of this with the intention of advertising two people's love for one another, no doubt knowingly emulating the entangled "V" and "A", at the centre of the gilded quatrefoil on the lantern above.
2005: , as well as noticing a smutty shadow created by the balustrade, reported that this balustrade is a replacement; the original was put up for sale.
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