London Flashcards
1st Quatrain
I wander through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet /
Marks of weakness, marks of woe
In every x3
In every cry of every man,
In every infants cry of fear
In every voice, in every ban
Th- m-nd-f-rg-d…
The mind-forged manacles I hear
Every…
Every black’ning church appalls
-nd th- h-pl-ss
And the hapless soldier’s sigh
/R-ns ….
/Runs un blood down palace walls
…the y–thf-l….
the youthful harlot’s curse
Bl-sts…
Blasts the new-born infant’s tear.
And bl-ghts
And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.
MER + C
wander
- Ambiguous
- 1) Sence of freedom and awe
- 2) Confusion and he is lost (from his original purpose)
MER+C
chartered street…chatered Thames
charted denotes to registered and lisenced
connotes to oppression and authoritatian control
Ploce further heightens sence of control
Control and rigidity juxtoposes to the free, aimless nature of “Wander”
Charted thaes is paticularly discooncerting as the natural river whych is typically associateed with freedom and libertyand has now be opressed and contoled and not it is “charted” by the state - C Nature good industrial revolution bad
**This may create a sence of safety and order YBNB may also convey a sence of opression
**
- C Romanticism - rejection of all instituitions of power.
MER + C
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe
Polyptoton - mark and marks
Ploce
Mark connatates to stains and wounds and suffering
Sence of horror but also sypathy for the people who live in London
Mark / stain C- Nature good, industrial revolution bad
MER+C
In every x3
…cry…cry
Tricolinic anaphora
- Sence of order but also restricting and rigid structure
-repition of cry further augments the torture and suffering
MER+C
The mind-forged manacles I hear
Metaphorical slavery of the workers
Nasal alliteration - conveys spitting contempt and sickening nature of the slavery
Auditory imagery - he hears the clink of the mind forged manacles
Symbolic of the hegemonic opression
1) The people are creating their own chains that otherwise wouldnt exist if our “minds” didnt “forge” them.
MER+C
chimney-sweeper’s cry / Every blackneing church appals.
Enjambment
Personification
Participle Adjective
Ambiguous
1) Blackens due to industrial revolution C- nature good, industry bad, Blake what deeply religious
2) Blackens may be symbollic of the moral corruption and church is appaled at the “chimney-sweepers’ cry” which is inconviencing it.
3) Church is appaled at the suffering
MER+C
hapless soldiers sigh / Runs in blood down the palace-walls
Sibilance + Auditory imagery of “soldier sighs” Evokes the suffering of hapless soldiers and creates a sence of sympathy towards them.
Grotesque image heightened by enjambment which physicalises the dripping of the blood.
ctitisism of the corruption of the establishment as the palace prosepers from the suffering of the soldiers’ sacrasfices.
MER+C
youthful harlots curse / Blasts the new-born infant’s tear,
Harlot - dergoatory
C - May be indicative of the treatment of prostitute at the time the play was written as they were criminalised and condemned.
“youthful” conveys a sence of sympathy and they had no choice and blames the Establishment
Enj, Inverted Iam, Plosive - “Blasts”
Shocking, violent
Inversion of nature as the harlots are robbed of their natural maternal care
MER+C
Structure - Meter
Iambic tetrameter, quatrains and consistent ABAB rhyme scheme
- Control
- Order
- Opression
Context
Romanticism
1. Nature good industrial revolution bad- nature is suffering and industrial revolution is currently winning “Charter’d Thames, blackening Church” c.f. Ozy, Prelude
2. Rejection of effects of revoluton
3. Wants to revert to pre-industrial times
4. Rejection of all insitutions of power and rejection of authority
Blake questioned the Establishment and saw it as an opressive and controlling force who were corrupt
Deeply religious protestant, but rejected organised religion and the Established church.
as he thought it was corrupt
Anti-monarchy, Non-conformist
Politacally radical ideology
Pushed for a more égaliterian society
He lived in London and felt it was dirty and morally corrupted by avarice and severe inequality.
