London Flashcards
“I wander thro each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,”
- The speaker wanders aimlessly through London’s streets, suggesting a feeling of melancholy and a lack of purpose.
- “Charter’d” implies order imposed on nature and society.
“And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.”
The speaker observes misery and despair on every person’s face, emphasised by the use of alliteration, suggesting the widespread, permanent impact of London’s problems.
“In every cry of every man,
In every infant’s cry of fear,”
The use of repetition suggests the suffering is universal, affecting even innocent infants, eliciting readers’ sympathy — as if all are destined for misery.
“The mind-forg’d manacles I hear:”
Blake suggests that people are socially and emotionally shackled by the metaphor of “mind-forg’d manacles”, representing their repression and imprisonment.
“How the chimney-sweeper’s cry
Every black’ning church appalls,”
The church, meant to care for the poor such as chimney sweeps, is instead appalled by their presence, exposing its hypocrisy and tarnished reputation.
“And the hapless soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down palace walls.”
Blake offers a social and political critique of wars waged by the monarchy and elite and the effect of this violence, with the emotive description of “runs in blood” conveying the impact on innocent people.
“How the youthful harlot’s curse
Blasts the new-born infant’s tear,”
Blake’s description of a young prostitute cursing her newborn offers a stark contrast between innocence and brutality, and implies the moral decay of society.
“And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.”
The oxymoron of “Marriage hearse” and the diction associated with disease (“blights” and “plague”) suggests the destruction of marriage, a pillar of society.
“midnight streets”
Blake’s reference to prostitution highlights the social issues and moral corruption present in London at the time that the poem was written.
