London - Blake Flashcards
Summary
“Marks of weakness, marks of woe.”
Antanaclasis → Repetition of “marks” shifts meaning: both physical scars and metaphorical imprints of suffering.
Metrical Shift → Emphasises the overwhelming presence of pain and hardship in every face.
Metaphor → Suggests both emotional suffering and literal scars caused by poverty, disease, and oppression.
Social Divide → The speaker may be an outsider, observing suffering from a detached or higher-class perspective.
Alliteration (“weakness” & “woe”) → Links despair and futility, reinforcing how deeply damaged London’s population is.
Historical Context → “Marks” may reference the visible effects of syphilis, a rampant disease that weakened victims over time.
“In every cry of every man,/ In every Infant’s cry of fear,/ In every voice: in every ban,”
Repetition → Reinforces the inescapable suffering, making London feel like a torturous place to live.
Anaphora (“In every”) → Adds rhythmic emphasis, showing suffering affects all, from birth to death.
Syntactic Parallelism → Highlights the universality of pain, affecting all social groups.
Inference → Pain is a lifelong experience in this dystopian city.
Hyperbole → The idea of men openly crying was shocking at the time, as it contradicted societal expectations of male strength.
“The mind-forged manacles I hear.”
Metaphor → “Manacles” represent mental oppression rather than physical chains, highlighting the psychological and societal restrictions.
Manacles → Literal chains of prisoners are used symbolically to show the psychological oppression imposed by religious, economic, and political systems.
Collective Failure → The imagery reflects a failure to imagine a more just and flourishing society.
Compound Adjective (“blackening Church”) → Emphasises the suffocating, oppressive influence of external systems.
Long Vowels → Make the line difficult to say, symbolising the difficulty of escaping mental and physical oppression.
Rousseau Reference → Echoes Rousseau’s idea that “Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains,” emphasising the dual nature of oppression (external and internal).
Social Critique → Blake critiques the systems of control that perpetuate suffering, showing how both society and the individual are trapped.
Rhyme
Iambic Tetrameter → Consistently used throughout the poem, symbolising order and control.
Reflection of Oppression → The rhythm mirrors the relentless oppression faced by the people of London.
Frustration with Society → The regular rhythm may express Blake’s frustration with the public’s failure to challenge powerful institutions.
Small Inconsistencies in Rhythm → These slight breaks represent opportunities for society to break free from oppression.
Example: “Marks of weakness, marks of woe” breaks the iambic tetrameter, emphasising disruption in the societal order.
Regular Rhyme Scheme → ABAB, CDCD throughout the poem creates unity and flow, keeping the reader engaged.
Iambic Tetrameter → Four metrical feet per line, with each foot containing one unstressed and one stressed syllable, maintaining a steady rhythm that contrasts with the chaotic subject matter.
Structure
Quatrains (Simple Form) → Four quatrains are used to explore complex ideas, making the poem accessible but profound.
Cyclical Structure → The poem moves from the impact of suffering to its source and back to the impact again, suggesting that suffering is endless.
First and second stanzas: Focus on the impact of suffering on people.
Third stanza: Examines the source of suffering.
Fourth stanza: Returns to the impact of suffering.
Implied Escape → The cyclical nature suggests that breaking the cycle (e.g., French Revolution) is the only way to escape suffering.
Stanza Three (Acrostic - “HEAR”)
Acrostic → The first letters of each line in stanza three spell “HEAR,” emphasizing the importance of listening to the suffering of the people.
Sound → The acrostic reflects the auditory experience of the speaker in London, as he hears the pain and cries of the oppressed.
Hidden Meaning → The acrostic is subtle, suggesting that understanding societal pain requires intentional effort and awareness.
“Marriage hearse”
Oxymoron → Blake’s view of marriage as a form of religious control that represses natural human impulses.
Connotations of Death → Reflects the prevalence of disease and the double standards in marriage at the time.
Critique of Double Standards → Men were not held to the same “clean” standards as women, leading to marriage becoming a “hearse” due to diseases from male infidelity.
Metaphor → The “hearse” symbolises how even love and marriage are tainted by death in a place like London.
Juxtaposition → Contrasts the joyous connotations of marriage with the finality of death, highlighting how love is overshadowed by death and grief in this grim environment.
