London

Question 1

Structure

Answer 1

• Repetitive stanza structure and rhyme scheme - reflect the relentless, repetitive snd overwhelming suffering the city, rhyme scheme could reflect the ty then of his feet as he trudged around London
• Also repetition of words - no escape of relief from the suffer
• Cyclical, again highlights the inescapable fate of those in the city
• Written in iambic tetrameter (8 syllables) - ‘marks of weakness, marks of woe’ is only 7 and by doing this he weakens the line to reflect the weakness of those suffering

Question 2

‘I wander through each chartered street(…) Chartered Thames’

Answer 2

• Dramatic monologue - first person narrator implies it is Blake speaking himself, present tense ‘wander’ reinforces the continuity of life in cities
• ‘Wander suggests freedom which is the harshly contrasted by chartered
• Between 1760 and 1820 a lot of ‘public land’ in England was taken into ownership - was a document that stated who owned what in this case
• Annoyed romantics like Blake, that nature is owned and someone decides who can go in it, the businessification of the natural world
• Forcing of power and control onto something natural like a river
• Juxtaposition of the power of nature vs man
• Satirical attack on the obsession with property rights
• Widens the gap between the poor and power

Question 3

‘Mind forged manacles’

Answer 3

• They are trapped in poverty
• Mental oppression inflicted by a repressive society
• A persons creativity and intellectual freedom are restricted
• Self inflicted bondage too, often our own thoughts that keep up trapped in misery
• ‘Ban’ (just before) reveals that they are placed there by society, links to ‘chartered’ suggests society metaphorically imprisons people

Question 4

‘Hapless soldiers sigh/
Runs in blood down palace walls’

Answer 4

• Those in power have ‘blood on their hands’ - guilt for sending soldiers to war
• ‘Sigh’ - suggests he feels unable to change things
• Sibilance, imitates breath, soldiers tired of war and even society
• Reference go the French Revolution, threat of military action that followed
• Suggests a similar revolution is likely to happen in England, emphasise society is so corrupt that the people with rise up
• Maybe Blake wants to see the blood if the aristocracy, he abhorred all forms of institutional control

Question 5

‘Every blackening church appals’