Quotes

• ’I wander thro’ each charter’d street’


  Shows the aimlessness and the extent of institutional control, even in public places, ‘I’ implies it is autobiographical and his first hand account with the problems in London at that time, ’wander‘ could show how he doesn’t know where he is as it all looks the same due to the thick smog
• ‘In every cry of every man’


  It universalises the suffering showing that it affects all classes, and shows how those superior, due to the patriarchal society, and seen as the strongest were also suffering
• ‘The mind-forg’d manacles I hear’


  This metaphor, he can’t actually hear them, shows how they are trapped in their heads and can’t escape, it also implies how they are trapped emotionally in society and their social class.
• ‘youthful Harlot’s curse’


  ’Harlots‘ are prostitutes and the the adjective ‘youthful’ shows how Blake was observing how young women and girls had to go to desperate measures just to survive. The word ‘curse’ could imply that they are punished because they were born in poverty and are now trapped there
• ‘every black’ning church appalls’ 


  The ’black’ning’ shows corruption and evil, and the lack of support for it’s people, this is why Blake saw the church as corrupt, he also believed this as they were meant to help but they weren’t doing that. Alternatively it can show how the Industrial Revolution was affecting London as the walls were ‘black’ning’ due to the smog produced by the new machinery.
• ‘the Chimney-sweeper‘s cry’


  ‘Chimney sweepers’ were usually young boys who had to work 19 hour days, as they ’cry’ it shows how much they suffered just to survive there, and them loosing their innocence from a very early age, some as young as age 6. Chimney sweepers are a clear example of child labour and the corruption in London as innocent children were expected to work in harsh conditions, to get paid minuscule amounts, just to help their families get by.