London

Question 1

‘I wander through each chartered street’

Answer 1

• first person narrator personalises poem - makes it more real
• ‘wander’ - shows purposelessness, symbolic of how powerless he is to change
• ‘chartered’ - mapped out or legally defined - EVERYWHERE is affected - bitterness
• suggests divisions and ownership

Question 2

‘Every blacking church appals, And the hapless soldiers sigh’

Answer 2

• visual imagery -. ‘black’ning’ caused by Industrial Revolution but deeper meaning of the corrupt church + their failure to look after people -> grim, ugliness
• ‘hapless’ - unfortunate, London is wasted frustration, exploited soldier fights needless war on behalf of palace
• bitter at monarchy for not helping the poor + even worse not helping soldiers who die for them

Question 3

‘And blights with plagues the marriage hearse’

Answer 3

• powerful lang of illness + disease, shows destruction
• ‘plagues’ -> uncontrollable, affects many
• ‘marriage hearse’ - oxymoron, links happy image of marriage with death, perhaps ‘marriage’ presents the future; everything will be destroyed

Question 4

‘How the youthful harlot’s curse, Blasts the new born infants tear’

Answer 4

• harlot -> symbol of desperation, hears prostitute swearing but could be suggesting they are a curse
• the prostitute would give birth -> showing the never-ending cycle of poverty
• aggressive ‘b’ sound of blasts contrasts with the innocence and purity of an infant -> this also contrasts between innocence of youth and shameful prostitute
• innocence of babies lost immediately -> damaging society

Question 5

Structure

Answer 5

Dramatic monologue where the 1st person narrator speaks passionately about the suffering he sees. The ABAB rhyme scheme is unbroken and echoes the relentless misery of the city.

Question 6

Context

Answer 6

Blake had radical social and political views and believed in social and racial equality, he even questioned the Church. hHe wrote 2 volumes, ‘London’ is in ‘Songs of Experiences’ which looks at how the innocence of society is lost and corrupted. He exposes how people in power (church, monarchy, landowners) seem to be behind the relentless misery people suffer from and are trapped by yet they do nothing to help.