London by William Blake

Question 1

Content, meaning and purpose

Answer 1

• The narrator is describing a walk around London and how is saddened by the sights and sounds of poverty
• The poem also addresses the loss of innocence and the determinism of inequality: how new-born infants are born into poverty
• The poem usura rhetoric (persuasive techniques) to convince the reader that the people in power are to blame for this inequality

Question 2

Context

Answer 2

• The poem was published in 1794, and time of great poverty is many parts of London
• William Blake was an English poet and artist. Much of his work was influenced by his radical political views: he believed in social and racial equality
• This poem is part of the ‘Songs of Experience’ collection, which focuses on how innocence is lost and society is corrupt.
• He so questioned the teachings of the church and the decisions of the Government

Question 3

Language

Answer 3

• Sensory language creates an immersive effect: visual imagery (‘Marks of weakness, marks of woe’) and aural imagery (‘cry of every man’)
• ‘mind-forged manacles’: they are trapped in poverty.
• Rhetorical devices to persuade: repetition (‘In every…’); emotive language (‘infant’s cry of fear’)
• Criticises the powerful: ‘each chartered street’- everything is owned by the rich; ‘Every black’ning chuch appals’- the chuch is corrupt; ‘the hapless soldier’s sigh/ Runs in blood down palace walls’- soldier’s suffer and die due to the decisions of those in power, who themselves live in palaces

Question 4

Form and structure

Answer 4

• A dramatic monologue, there is a first-person narrator who speaks passionately about what he sees
• Simple ABAB rhyme scheme: reflects the unrelenting misery of the city, and perhaps the rhythm of his feet as he trudged around the city
• First two stanzas focus on people; third stanza focuses on the institution he holds responsible; fourth stanza returns to the people -they are the central focus