london

• the poem "London" by William Blake
• William Blake


  • Famous for his poetry, paintings, and printmaking
  • Held views seen as peculiar by his contemporaries
  • Only stayed in school until age 10
• English Dissenters


  A type of Protestantism that had separated from the Church of England due to disagreement with state interference
• Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

  Blake's two major books of poetry, the former being positive and the latter being more critical and negative
• Blake initially supported the French Revolution but later criticized it as it descended into chaos and violence
• Blake wrote "London" during the Industrial Revolution
• Industrial Revolution in London


  • Factories opened up across the city
  • Lower-class workers took up jobs in the factories, which were difficult, dangerous, and poorly paid
  • Increased pollution and class divisions
• The title "London" establishes the topic of the poem
• Chartered


  Can mean either the amount of trade occurring or the increasing political and economic control in London
• Blake, as a romantic poet, was critical of the increasing control and ownership of land and the Thames


  He uses the word "chartered" to mock this control
• Blake notices weakness and woe in the faces of everyone he meets in London
• The repetition of "every" emphasizes the universality of the misery in London
• Mind-forged manacles


  Represents the control and crushing of the Londoners' hope and spirits
• Oral imagery is abundant in the second stanza, suggesting the difficulty of escaping the evidence of London's control
• When analysing a poem like William Blake's "London", a range of assumptions are made about the rationality of economic agents involved in the transactions
• The poem "London" was written by William Blake
• Rational


  (in classical economic theory) economic agents are able to consider the outcome of their choices and recognise the net benefits of each one
• Rational agents will select the choice which presents the highest benefits
• Rationality in classical economic theory is a flawed assumption as people usually don't act rationally
• Marginal utility


  The additional utility (satisfaction) gained from the consumption of an additional product
• If you add up marginal utility for each unit you get total utility
• Youthful harlot


  Juxtaposition of purity/innocence and sordidness/depravity
• London's corruption


  Represented by the "curse of the evil harlots" infecting babies
• London's corruption


  Inevitable and inescapable, will remain with people for their entire lives
• Blight and plague


  Metaphors for illness and disease, suggesting London will corrupt many people and is incurable
• Marriage hearse


  Oxymoronic image, marriage associated with new life but also death
• Poem structure


  • Four 4-line stanzas, alternate rhyme scheme, iambic tetrameter
  • Rhythmic weakness in some lines suggests state's over-control results in weakness
  • Dramatic monologue form, persona is powerless observer
• The poem is a critique of the power of the ruling classes and the powerlessness of the people in London during the Industrial Revolution
• The poem is not heavily concerned with nature, love, or war, but rather focuses on the theme of corruption and the effect of place on people
• The poem can be seen as a critique of organized religion and the metaphorical death of the individual