london

• "chartered street"

  controlled, no freedom
• "the mind-forged manacles"

  "mind-forged" - they're taught to be narrow minded, brought up to all be the same

  "manacles" - they're controlled physically and mentally, bottom of the heirarchy had no voice
• 3rd stanza is acrostic, it spells out "HEAR", symbolising that people are hearing, but not listening
• "every black'ning church appalls"

  oxymoron, church should show welcoming and happiness, church had oppurtunity to help, but he feels their acumilating wealth
• "runs in blood down palace walls"

  as if their pain is engraved into the walls, they're being used and dehumanized
• "new born infant's tear"

  as soon as babies are born, their life is destined to be bad as they're silenced
• "where the chartered thames does flow"

  oxymoron, as "chartered" means restricted/trapped, but "flow" means freedom
• "hapless soldiers sigh"

  "sigh" could suggest soldiers are tired of being controlled and doing what they're told. soldiers are seen as glorious not hapless(hopeless)
• intention


  blake is trying to wake people up and break free of society
• "marks of woe"

  surrounded by extreme sadness
• "in every"

  anaphora, trying to get people to listen but they won't
• anaphora


  repetition of a word or phrase at the start of a sentence