4. London - William Blake

Question 1

What are the main ideas in London?

Answer 1

1. People in power limit our freedom.
2. People in power restrict our hopes and dreams.
3. The poor should claim their freedoms through violent revolutions.

Question 2

“I wander throu’ each charter’d street near where the charter’d Thames does flow”

Answer 2

• the verb ‘wander’ : starts off the poem with a sense of freedom as he’s walking wherever he pleases.
• the repetition of ‘charter’d’ : emphasises how everything is owned and controlled by those in power.
• the natural imagery ‘Thames’ : even the river; usually a symbol of freedom; is charter’d [controlled].

Question 3

Repetition used to show how suffering is universal - everybody suffers because of the government

Answer 3

“In every cry of every man/ in ever infant’s cry of fear”

Question 4

Key image of imprisonment shows how people can free their minds if they want to.

Answer 4

“The mind-forged manacles I see”

Question 5

Oxymoron (contradiction) shows how life is pointless when powerful people control everyone

Answer 5

“Blights with plague the marriage hearse.”

Question 6

What is the context of London?

Answer 6

Blake was influenced by the French Revolution to show how ordinary people should take back power from the government, as the government had all the power over society.

Question 7

“Near where the chartered Thames does flow”

Answer 7

• ‘chartered’ The repetition emphasises control over nature. London saw the rich getting richer, and the poor being more governed by the rich, which increased the gap between rich and poor
• ‘Thames does flow’ even the river is symbolic of nature’s power and how freedom is now owned/controlled/used for trade.

Question 8

“And mark in every face I meet”

Answer 8

• The hyperbole ‘every’ suggests that all the people of London are suffering lives of slavery for the rich and the exploitation of the poor.

Question 9

“Marks of weakness, marks of woe.”

Answer 9

• ‘Marks’, ‘marks’ & ‘weakness’, ‘woe’ are alliteration and they show pain and sadness at the suffering of the enslaved city, nature and people.
• Blake blames the ‘slaves’ for not being able to rise up and stand up for their rights.
• ‘marks’ here mean “signs of weakness, signs of woe”. The double meaning can represent the writer’s frustration about the rapidly changing nature of London. Blake did not agree with these changes.