Tag Archives

Westminster Bridge

ON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE

‘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.’

COMPOSED ON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, SEPTEMBER 3, 1802

William Wordsworth

 

After their slow revolve on the London Eye,

the kingdom’s power nexus spread beneath them –

palaces, churches, offices, parade grounds –

many tourists walk across the bridge.

 

Today industrial scale ‘Find The Lady’

awaits them: six identical sets of mats,

tin cups, balls, and keen punters shamming –

distractions for marks pickpockets will make.

A pair of police constables strides

with intent from the Embankment. One calls out

as the many miscreants disperse.

Good to know that – armed with taisers and batons,

on a bridge fortified against terrorists –

a burly bobby still shouts, ”Oi, you!’

 

At the foot of the bridge near the entrance

to Parliament’s guarded underground car park,

a Scottish piper plays a pibroch,

‘Lochaber no more’, a lament of exile.

The plangent notes swirl amongst the passing crowds.

NOT ANYTHING TO SHOW MORE FAIR

'Westminster Bridge', Canaletto, 1746



A league from Hoole is Westminster Bridge,

Ellesmere Port. Like Wordsworth, I composed on it.

The brick replica replaced the level

crossing, after the Borough had built

the Civic Hall in the boom time: Shell, Vauxhall,

overspill estates – a working class city.

Jobs went, the bridge stayed, no one made jokes.

The high street, strait, terraced, encompassed

all: Big Mac and sometimes on Sundays

Russian sailors window-shopping. Before me,

framed by the TSB and the Loyalist

Club lay the M53: beyond,

the Mersey – silent, still.