London
Cards (6)
- LondonPoem by William Blake
- Themes
- Power
- Inequality
- Loss
- Anger
- Content, Meaning and Purpose
- The narrator is describing a walk around London and how he is saddened by the sights and sounds of poverty
- The poem also addresses the loss of innocence and the determinism of inequality: how new-born infants are born into poverty
- The poem uses rhetoric (persuasive techniques) to convince the reader that the people in power (landowners, Church, Government) are to blame for this inequality
- Language
- Sensory language creates an immersive effect: visual imagery ("Marks of weakness, marks of woe') and aural imagery ('cry of every man')
- 'mind-forged manacles': they are trapped in poverty
- Rhetorical devices to persuade: repetition ('In every.."); emotive language ('infant's cry of fear')
- Criticises the powerful: 'each chartered street'- everything is owned by the rich; 'Every black'ning church appais- the church is corrupt; 'the hapless soldier's sigh/Runs in blood down palace walls'- soldier's suffer and die due to the decisions of those in power, who themselves live in palaces
- Context
- Tones: Angry, Dark, Rebellious
- The poem was published in 1794, and time of great poverty is many parts of London
- William Blake was an English poet and artist. Much of his work was influenced by his radical political views: he believed in social and racial equality
- This poem is part of the 'Songs of Experience' collection, which focuses on how innocence is lost and society is corrupt
- He also questioned the teachings of the Church and the decisions of Government
- Form and Structure
- A dramatic monologue, there is a first-person narrator (1) who speaks passionately about what he sees
- Simple ABAB rhyme scheme: reflects the unrelenting misery of the city, and perhaps the rhythm of his feet as he trudges around the city
- First two stanzas focus on people; third stanza focuses on the institutions he holds responsible; fourth stanza returns to the people - they are the central focus