Student Question
What does Wordsworth compare to a garment and what is the effect of this simile?
Quick answer:
Wordsworth compares the city of London in the early morning to a garment. The effect of this simile is to draw together civilization and nature, with London seeming to wear the peace and serenity that nature brings.
In this poem, a sonnet, Wordsworth's speaker compares the city of London as he sees it in the early morning light to a garment, writing,
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning.
The effect of the simile is to suggest that London changes its clothes
during the course of a day, just as a person does. The simile therefore works
doubly, as it personifies the city.
We see the city dressed in the beauty of the morning light and air, such
that civilization and nature become, at least on the surface, one. The speaker
goes on to say more about this, describing the many aspects of the city—such as
ships, domes, theaters, and towers—as especially peaceful, stating that he has
never experienced "a calm so deep."
Romantic poets like Wordsworth often exalted nature as closer to the
divine source than cities, which were seen as corrupt and man-made and, for
that reason, divorced from God. In this case, however, Wordsworth brings the
two together, showing that even a major city can be touched and influenced by
nature's serenity. Like putting on a garment which can soon be discarded, this
union of nature and civilization may be fleeting, but it is nonetheless
beautiful and memorable to witness.
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