London

Question 1

What is the summary of London?

Answer 1

the narrator is walking through the streets of London comments on his observations

Question 2

What is different in the first two verses then the second two verses?

Answer 2

Blake uses a lot of repetition to suggest how the despair in the faces of the people he meets is continuous

Question 3

Where is the Valter and what is the change?

Answer 3

In the 3rd verse Blake changes the focus from general to specific groups:

• “Every black’ning church appalls,”
• “And the hapless solider’s sigh”

Question 4

What quotes depict the atmosphere of London in 1794?

Answer 4

• “chartered”
• “mind-forged manacles”
• “mark”/”marks”
• “runs in blood down palace walls.”

Question 5

What is happens at last verse?

Answer 5

The poem climaxes at the moment when the cycle of misery recommences, in the form of a new human being starting life: a baby is born into poverty, to a cursing, prostitute mother:

• “youthful harlot’s curse”
• “plagues of the marriage hearse.”

Question 6

How is London structured?

Answer 6

The poem has four quatrains, with alternate lines rhyming. Repetition is most used feature of the poem, and it emphasises the horrors the speaker describes

Question 7

Why does the narrator go on a walk?

Answer 7

“I wondered” suggests it is aimless, maybe they want to immerse themselves into the the conditions as they maybe better off than the people they see. They are not only succumbed to what the people of London are like but to the smog and how it darkens the city

Question 8

How does Blake use sentence lengths?

Answer 8

varied sentences:

• emphasises wondering
• shows time passing
• suggests the chaos of what happens around him