London

Question 1

“Chartered street” and “Chartered Thames” (3)

Answer 1

• Chartered is something which is listed and regulated
• Streets are clearly controlled
• River is controlled - shows mans’ control over nature

Question 2

“And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe” (3)

Answer 2

• Blake is suggesting that everyone is without power and in misery - very powerful statement
• “mark” - metaphor for a brand to show their place in society
• “Woe” - upset, agony, despair, sorrow

Question 3

“In every cry of every man, In every infants cry of fear, in every voice: in every ban”

Answer 3

• repetition of “in every” used to emphasise the scale of suffering

Question 4

“The mind-forged manacles” (2)

Answer 4

• Alliteration - “mind-forged manacles”
• metaphor - “manacles” are like handcuffs- suggests that not physically but mentally being held back by their own belief of their own weakness

Question 5

“How the Chimney-sweepers cry Every black’ning Church appals” (2)

Answer 5

• The juxtaposition between “black’ning” and “Church” as Black symbolises lack of hope and death and church symbolises hope and faith
• This contrasts the cries of the innocent dirty children with the supposedly clean but corrupt church

Question 6

“The hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls” (3)

Answer 6

• Links to war at the time - context
• “Blood down palace walls” signifies their sacrifice to protect the power of those who live in the palaces - symbolic metaphor
• “Hapless” - synonym for hopeless

Question 7

“The youthful Harlots curse Blasts the new-born Infants tear” (3)

Answer 7

• Harlots - slang for prostates/low class women
• Blake is corrupting the idea of childbirth with sexual exploitation and hate “curse”
• the new born infant is born into a broken world

Question 8

“Marriage hearse”

Answer 8

• Oxymoron which juxtaposes the joy of marriage with the misery of death
• Blake is suggesting that society has destroyed all the good things in life

Question 9

Patterns?

Answer 9

• poem uses quatrains with alternate rhyme abab to create the rhythm of the narrator walking

Question 10

Context (3)

Answer 10

• The poem is set during a time in England where there was poverty, child labour and a horrific war with France
• Also in this time Women had no rights, death rates from disease and malnutrition were high and the industrial revolution resulted in many large oppressive factories
• Blake’s poems often railed against these and how London was so dirty and corrupt

Question 11

Themes (2)

Answer 11

• Lack of power and abuse of power
• the poem is set in the capital of the most powerful country in the world yet words like “manacles” suggests slavery while the soldiers sigh ‘runs in blood palace walls’ a clear contrast between those with power and those without

Question 12

Revolution and people power (2)

Answer 12

• In the poem Blake is perhaps supporting the peoples’ revolution (which was that men are equal and have power)
• Blake is suggesting that people should throw their “manacles” off

Question 13

Structure

Answer 13

Cyclical structure - highlights the inescapable fate of people in the city

Question 14

Tone at the end of the poem - “and blights with plagues of marriage hearse”

Answer 14

• Quite sinister

Question 15

Key quotes

Answer 15

• “Chartered street” and “Chartered Thames”