London Flashcards
“I wander through each chartered street”
Every element of London runs on money - shows how deep the capitalist regime goes within the city. People’s lives are based on profit.
“Mark in every face I meet, marks of weakness, marks of woe”
The misery and poverty of London has maimed it’s citizens - physical weariness. Marked like cattle. There is no escape from the bleakness.
“In every cry of every man, in every infant’s cry of fear”
Repetition of every shows how monotonous the city’s nature is as well as the way in which suffering is spreading like disease through everyone. He hears the same suffering of an infant in a grown man.
“The mind-forged menacles I hear”
Their distress is psychological, internal and can be overcome of they freed their minds - restrained socially and emotionally.
“Every black’ning church appals”
Religion is “black’ning” darkening and turning ‘evil’, used to control and oppress people. The “black’ning” could be a reference to the Industrial Revolution’s pollution but also to the way in which the reputation of the church was beginning to tarnish.
“Every hapless soldier’s sigh runs in blood down palace walls”
The blood of the proletariat dirties the hands of the rich who use the poor for their own profits and uses.
“Blights with plague the marriage hearse”
Something as innoccent and pure as marriage, is also dirtied - use of juxtaposition. Could be Blake’s criticism of how marriage for many women was “death” (hearse = coffin).
In patriarchal society, marriage was a contractual agreement between the fathers and for women was practically farewell to their freedom. Many women were abused and degraded by their husbands thus this quote.
“Where the chartered Thames does flow”
This is ironic as it suggests that a natural body of water can be owned and controlled by humans.
FORM
The poem takes a simple four stanza form as Blake wanted his poetry and message to be accessible for all and widespread - he felt everyone should consider and criticise his messages and views.
The poem is written in first person - demonstrates the speaker’s own experience of London.
STRUCTURE
Cyclical structure - the first and second stanzas focus on the impact on people. The third explores the source of suffering, and the fourth goes back to the impact again - the suffering is never-ending. Blake’s idea was that if the English revolted like the French, this cycle could be broken.
Fairly consistent use of iambic tetrameter Shows order and control, as the regularity of the rhythm implies a sense of relentless oppression/Quatrains use a regular ABAB rhyme scheme - once again organised and monotonous nature of London’s suffering.
There are instances when the iambic pentameter is broken however, “marks of weakness, marks of woe” and this could be Blake signifying that there are opportunities, there is hope for change, as long as we look for it.
Context
William Blake wrote during the Romantic era.
He worked to bring about change both in the social order and in the minds of people.
Blake lived in London for most of his life: he thought the city was dirty and corrupt, both literally and metaphorically
He believed institutions of power, such as the government, the church and the monarchy, were to be blamed for this.
Blake’s poem centres on London, arguably the capital of the world at that time.
This is ironic as such a powerful and influential place, in Blake’s opinion, inflicts suffering and misery on many of its citizens.
There was a huge gap between rich and poor at the time, so a huge disparity between those who had power, and those who did not.
Blake was a Christian, but he rejected organised religion and the established church.
Blake, Romanticism and Power of Nature
Romantics were interested in the power of nature, humanity and emotion.
They were generally opposed to the industrialisation and scientific progress sweeping through Europe at the time
He uses the irony of the Thames, a natural body of water, which has been made official and subject to law (“charter’d”).
He considered nature to be powerful and that it should not be tamed.
Which poems is London best compared to?
Ozymandias; My Last Duchess
