Point of View

The poem is technically told from the first person present point of view, although much of it is in the third person point of view. The only time at which the speaker references themselves within the context of the poem is in the eleventh line, when they say, “Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep” (11). Otherwise, the speaker spends the majority of the text describing the city landscape in the third person, interjecting their personal opinions throughout as subjective observations. For example, in the opening lines they say, “Earth has not anything tis how more fair:/dull would he be of soul who could pass by/a sight so touching in its majesty” (1-3). While this is clearly the speaker’s opinion, they are more so telling the story of the city as opposed to their own story, thus making it the...