On a beautiful early morning 221 years ago, the poet William Wordsworth surveyed the city of London from the vantage point of Westminster Bridge, while the great metropolis was still in the slumber of dawn.

“Dull would he be of soul who would pass by/ A sight so touching in its majesty,” he reflects. This morning there will be no dawn slumber, as the great pageantry of King Charles’s coronation takes place place in Westminster Abbey before the TV cameras of the world, based on a thousand years of ceremony.

It may be very much in the English tradition, though Scotland’s Stone of Destiny makes a brief on-loan appearance from Edinburgh. But it’s not a day for brooding about the past or the concept of voluntary homage, it’s for enjoyment and taking pride in our peerless democratic heritage.

LESLEY DUNCAN

 

COMPOSED ON

WESTMINSTER BRIDGE,

September 3, 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!