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LINES 9-10 Never did sun more beautifully steep In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill; Lines 9 and 10 respond to the image of the glittering city (presented in line 8) by echoing the earnestness of the first line and reaffirming the image laid down throughout the octave (the poem's first eight lines). Like the first line of the octave, this line, the first of the sestet (the final six lines of the poem), is argumentative. Even though it cries out confidently, its language deepens the contradictions contained in the previous lines. “Never,” the first word in line 9, returns to the argumentative stance of line 1: “Earth has not anything to show more fair” than London on a clear morning. In an Italian sonnet, the sestet is supposed to comment on the octave. In this case, the sestet is reviewing and reiterating what was said in the octave. It is bringing the argument about the supreme beauty of London at dawn to a new level. In line 1 the city is “fair,” beautiful in a soft and subtler way—an appropriate adjective for the pale light of dawn. In line 10, however, the sunlight is equated with “splendour.” The city has left its fair garment behind, now lying fully exposed in a rich, magnificent light. During the octave, which takes place at dawn, the presence of the sun was only implied. In line 9, however, the word “sun” is used for the first time. The sun is fully risen and brilliant; the speaker cannot hold off from naming it any longer. The city can’t avoid it either. To describe the sun’s shining, the speaker chooses the word “steep,” which means to soak. As if at the bottom of the ocean, every part of the city is steeped in the glorious sunlight. Once again, lines 9 and 10 echo line 1 in their claim that the city is somehow more beautiful than nature. Neither “valley, rock, or hill,” the speaker claims, has been steeped more beautifully in the sunlight than the city is at this very moment. Yet it may be the case that the speaker doesn’t esteem the city over nature as a whole, but rather over its separate features. In line 10, caesuras emphasize the separateness of these features. Line 10 is only the second line in the poem to use full iambic pentameter—five unstressed-stressed syllable pairs: In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill; The commas interrupt a steady rhythm and throw borders between the words referring to natural features. Furthermore, the conjunction linking the features is “or,” implying an option among the items in the list. The speaker may be saying that, alone, a rock or a valley can’t match the city. Considering the fluid border between the city and the fields in line 7, the speaker may believe that together, the natural features may perform differently. They may even combine with the buildings (whose list in line 6 resembles the list in line 10), fusing nature and the city in a way that somehow transcends “pure” nature. Of course, in acknowledging a change in the quality of light, the speaker accepts the impermanence of his or her vision. Already, the “fair” dawn has passed, and soon the splendid steepage will too.