London

• Overview:

  1st Stanza: Speaker is walking through London and he sees weakness and unhappiness in everyone's faces

  2nd Stanza: Every sound he hears he realises people are trapped

  3rd Stanza: The stress of the people in London ruins it

  4th Stanza: When walking about, he hears young prostitutes swearing which ruins the innocence of the new born babies
• Structure:

  • Rhyme scheme is A, B, A, B
  • Written in quatrains (stanzas in lines of four)
  • Repetitive language, rhyme scheme and structure shows the repetitiveness of the suffering of those in London
  • This is due to the result of the decisions of those in power
  • Cyclical structure as poem ends and begins with the focus of those who are suffering
• William Blake:

  • Born in 1757 in London
  • Poet, painter and printmaker
  • Respected the Bible, but disliked organised religion such as the Church of England
  • Moved out of London in 1800, but returned in 1804
  • Often wrote about rebelling against the misuse of power and class
• Imagery of suffering

  • "Marks of weakness, marks of woe"
  • "In every cry of every man"
• Use of the word 'charter'd'

  • Much of the land in England was given to private owners when it was once public
  • A document provided by the Government that says who owns what
  • Made many people rich, all of a sudden people own this beautiful nature
• 'Charter'd Thames'

  • Juxtaposition of the nature against man; nature is being used for the profits of man
• Repetition of 'mark'

  • 'Mark' meaning signs: " Marks of weakness, marks of woe"
  • Decisions of those in power and destroying the regular people
• Repetition of 'In every' in stanza 2

  • Builds up to the final line 'The mind-forg'd manacles I hear"
  • Imagining the mind as a forge making manacles (similar to handcuffs)
  • Speaks about the lack of freedom are 'mind-forged'
• Context:

  • A critique of human power
  • Population of London was 760,000 when Blake was born
  • Over 3 million over 100 years later
  • Due to the Industrial Revolution that Blake was massively against
  • He was against it due to the low pay and exploitation of women and children
  • London was being filled with smog and smoke
• Repetition of chartered:

  • Juxtaposition of the power of nature to the power of man
  • Humans trying to oppose power onto something that is natural
• Stanza 1 and 2 focuses on those who are suffering

  Stanza 3 focuses on the causes of suffering

  Stanza 4 focuses back to those who are suffering

  • Highlights the inescapable fate of those in the city
  • People's lives go round in circles
• Written in iambic tetrameter

  • Highlights repetitive suffering of the people in London
• "Marks of weakness marks of woe" breaks the pattern of iambic tetrameter

  • Gives the line itself weakness - has less syllables than the other lines
• "And the hapless soldier's sigh Runs in blood down palace walls."

  • Blake suggesting there could be an uprising if the causes on the British soldiers are ignored
  • 'Palace' suggests the monarchy is to blame
• The marriage hearse


  Oxymoron:

  • Happy image of marriage contradicts sad image of hearse associated with death
  • The London of old is set to be destroyed
  • Powerful end to the poem - criticises those in power