London Flashcards
Who was it written by?
William Blake
(1757-1827)
Context about London/Blake
• from Victorian/Georgian England
• from anthology, ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’
• poem exposed corruption of London - child Labour, war, no rights for women, disease and malnutrition
• Blake was against the Industrial Revolution
• Blake dislike organised religion
Meaning behind the poem:
• reveals the authors disgust towards the corruption of Victorian/Georgian Era
• critique of human power, exposing distance between those in power and those who are suffering - this is inescapable
Structure/rhyme scheme
• written in four stanzas with regular alternate rhyming scheme (reflects regular walking pace of narrator as he walks through London
• poem used Quatrains (abab) with alternate rhyme to create the rhythm of the narrator walking
• repetitive stanza - repetitive and overwhelming suffering
• repeated words - reflects there is no relief from suffering
• iambic tetrameter
1st Stanza - ‘I wander through each chartered street’
‘chartered’ - adjective, something which is listed and regulated - streets clearly controlled
• 1760 - 1820 , 6 million acres of land taken into private ownership
• criticism of this capitalism
1st Stanza, 2nd line - ‘Near where the chartered Thames does flow’
repeated word, ‘chartered’
• nature is controlled by man - ironic, verb ‘does’ flow
• nature was perceived as being destroyed
• criticism of the Industrial Revolution
1st stanza, third line - ‘And mark in every face I meet’
• metaphor for a brand, don’t look tired but are branded this way to show their place in society
• powerful, suggests everyone is in misery and without the power to change, limited this way
• public are stained by the church and government - submitting because it is a verb, shows they are succumbing to power and therefore become affected by its ill use
Theme of the first stanza
• misery
Fourth line of 1st stanza ‘Marks of weakness, marks of woe’
• symbolic of weakness, line is weak in syllable count compared to the first three lines of the stanza
• w repetition creates rhythm of crying and sobbing - weakness
Significance of the last line of each stanza
• has a powerful statement summing up the rest of the stanza
First three lines of second stanza:
‘In every cry of every man,
In every infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban’
Repetition to show the scale of suffering
Fourth line of second stanza, ‘the mind-forged manacles I hear’
• manacles = metal bands fastening a person’s hands/ankles
• suggests slavery, creates contrast between those with/without power
• theme of lack of power/abuse of power
• alliteration draws attention to the metaphor (belief in own weakness holds them back)
• Blake is supporting the ‘People’s’ Revolution in France - wants people to throw off ‘manacles’ of the belief that they should do what they are told
• metaphorical symbolism
Overall message of 2nd stanza
People’s refusal to stand tall
In every cry of every man
In every infant’s cry of fear
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear:
• caesura creates idea that the public are beaten down and made voiceless, as a result they are slaves
• repetition emphasises scale of suffering
How the chimney sweeper’s cry
Every black’ning church appalls,
And the hapless solider’s sigh
Runs in blood down palace walls
Overall message of stanza = how people are sacrificed for the rich and powerful
‘Every black’ning church appalls’ - colour imagery/symbolism - Blake saw religion as a dark/evil force and tool to keep people suppressed
‘solider’s sigh’ - sibilance for the disgust of Blake towards how the sacrifice of those suppressed is in vain
‘Runs in blood down palace walls’ - symbolic metaphor of blood running down walls signifies the sacrifice to protect the power of those who live in palaces - ‘run’ verb reflects the cowardice of those in power who run from conflict and exploit to avoid affecting their status - link to sibilance
