London Flashcards
Near where the
charter’d Thames does flow,
A charter is a legal process where wealthy individuals took possession of houses and streets. Civilians had a lack of freedom.
Saying the Thames is charter’d shows the extent to which the power has taken over every life esp. as “every” is repeated 4 times in stanza 2, 5 times in total. Suffering is universal.
Marks of weakness,
marks of woe.
Weakness shows inability to rise and fight against power and woe expresses the distress that comes from this.
Repetition and heavy sounding alliteration creates a prison the people are trapped in.
In every cry
of every Man,
In every Infants
cry of fear,
The mind-forg’d
manacles I hear.
The prison that adults and even children experience because of the govt/monarchy has impacted them so much that they are no longer free in even their minds, the one place that everyone usually is and should be free. They are unable to break free from the products of their thoughts.
Every black’ning
Church appalls;
Blake had a hatred for the Church, shown through “black’ning” contrasts the usual connotations of Church which are hope and praise.
Runs in blood
down Palace walls.
The blood can be from the soldiers, and also, as a result, the blood the government have on their hands.
Blake also distrusted the government which is reflected here.
How the youthful
Harlot’s curse
Blasts the new
born infant’s tear,
Life is poisoned from the very beginning, and that even a baby who hasn’t been alive for a very long time senses the corruption, the same lives adults are living are likely be lived by these babies.
And blights
with plague the Marriage hearse.
What does the form of the poem highlight?
Iambic tetrameter has stressed and unstressed syllables, each stanza has four lines; rhyme scheme is ABAB - this represents the control that the higher authorities had over the civilians and the restrictions imposed.
