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3. PARADOX In lines 4 and 5, the poem depicts the city with seemingly contradictory language, an instance of paradox. The city wears the morning sunlight “like a garment,” or piece of clothing. At the same time, however, the city (more specifically, its buildings) is “bare.” How is it possible that the city is both bare (i.e. naked) and clothed? This paradox isolates “bare,” the word at the center of the contradiction, and thus asks the reader to meditate on its layered meaning. At first glance, the language doesn’t quite make sense. Though the image of the clothed city is metaphorical, and therefore more flexible in its presentation, the reader might justifiably expect consistency out of Wordsworth. But the speaker is not naively negating the image of the previous clause. As an adjective, “bare” may not simply mean “naked.” It may also mean fresh, uncorrupted, clean, or full of potential (kind of like a blank canvas). Though in this poem it’s clearly an adjective, the reader might also consider the verb form of “bare,” which means to reveal, uncover, or expose. While at first that reading may not square with the clothed city, there are interpretations that allow for it. For example, given that the sunrise is an observable process, the speaker may be watching the clothed city slowly reveal itself, in the same way that a woken sleeper strips sheets from their body. And the poem’s final line reinforces that meaning. The poem embodies a continuous revelation that ends with the core of the sleeping body: a massive heart, fully bared. Where Paradox appears in the poem: • Lines 4-5: “This City now doth, like a garment, wear / The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,”