London

Question 1

Context
Structure/form
Message

Answer 1

Context (William Blake)
Radical views on politics and society. He has 2 main collections - ‘songs of innocence’ (childhood/nature) and ‘songs of experience’ (loss of innocence, society is corrupted).
Structure/form:
Dramatic monologue (first person narrator speaking passionately about the suffering he sees)
The narrator presents relentless images of deprived people. The 1st two stanzas focus on people he sees and hears before moving onto the 3rd stanza where he presents the institutions he holds responsible.

Question 2

Quotation 1 ~ “I wander…”

Answer 2

“I wander…”

• first person, showing a first hand a experience, spoken in first person.
• (the experience is primary)
• “wander” is relaxed and seems that the walk is purposeless.

Question 3

Quotation 2 ~ “each chartered street”

Answer 3

“Each chartered street”

• not just one area is affected, it’s multiple.
• chartered = legally defined (the streets are owned by the government and monarchy)

Question 4

Quotation 3 ~ “Marks of weakness, marks of woe”

Answer 4

“Weakness” “woe”

• the impacts are not physical
• showing that people he meets are affected by the misery and dispair.

Question 5

Quotation 4 ~ “in EVERY cry of EVERY man, in EVERY infants cry of fear, in EVERY voice, in EVERY ban”

Answer 5

“in EVERY cry of EVERY man, in EVERY infants cry of fear, in EVERY voice, in EVERY ban”

• repetition of “every” demonstrates the idea that there is no escape, linking to stanza one with “chartered”
• the emotions affect all classes, no one is not impacted
• “cry of every man” - stereotype of a man is strong, so this suggests the lack/loss of strength within this period of time.

Question 6

Quotation 5 ~ “…runs in blood down palace walls”

Answer 6

“…runs in blood down palace walls”

• direct link to the monarchy (French revolution) referencing that the same events could happen in England.
• blood links to the soldiers.