Summary

• This poem describes the poetic voice’s walk through London and the horrifying sights he encounters.
• Blake was very critical of the poverty and social change he witnessed
• • London describes how everything from the streets to the free-flowing Thames is ‘charter’d’, or controlled by the government. This restriction is shown in the pained faces of the people he sees.
• • The second stanza considers how restrictions affect people’s voices and thoughts too.
• • In the third stanza, Blake shifts to the marginalised in society. He considers the suffering of the chimney-sweep and soldier.
• • The final stanza develops this focus to consider the ‘youthful harlot’ and her baby. This implies that the next generation has been corrupted.
• • London was written in the Romantic era, which was an age of vast political and social revolution.
• The Romantic era followed the American Revolution and the French Revolution . So Romanticism was an age in which society had to deal with the impact of vast political upheaval .
• Blake gives a voice to the suffering of marginalised people.