london

• "I wander through each chartered street, Near where the chartered Thames does flow"

  The verb "wander" makes it seem as though the speaker is alienated from the place he once loved and he's just walking aimlessly

  "chartered" the repetition conveys how everything in the city is fixed and regulated, the speaker clearly resents being so confined

  "chartered Thames"

  The juxtaposition of 'charted' and 'thames' (a river) conveys how even nature is being controlled
• Poem structure

  • Written in quatrains with a sustained ABAB rhyme scheme, mirroring the rigid and restricted nature of London
• "marks of weakness, marks of woe"


  "Mark" First used as a verb to show the speaker is noticing the suffering on people's faces, then used as a noun to show people are marked and scarred by their pain

  The alliteration of 'w' in 'weakness' and 'woe' connects the people's poverty and sadness, and also suggests the speaker's confusion about what has happened to the city he once loved
• "Mind-forged manacle"


  A metaphor suggesting people have no autonomy, their minds are imprisoned, or their weakness is only in their mind, calling for a revolution
• "Hapless soldier's sigh runs in blood down palace wall"


  Juxtaposes the status and security of the palace with the unfortunate soldiers' lives, showing the disparity in wealth and power

  "Soldier's sigh"

  The soft sound suggests they have accepted and resigned to their fate
• "Blackening"


  Connotations of evil, criticizing the church for being tainted and corrupt, or referring to the pollution in the factories
• The violent alliteration of 'b' in the last stanza shows how society is breaking down
• William blake lived in london and saw the greed and inequality, he had radical and political views