London (incomplete) Flashcards
‘Chartered street’
They’ve all been ‘chartered’ so they are effectively owned and controlled by the wealthy.
‘And mark in every face I meet’
The repetition of ‘marks’ demonstrates that this is a permanent impact of a place’s power with wide-reaching and exception-free extent. It also suggests that they cannot remove the impact of the suffering they have experienced, and, like the branding of the cattle, the citizens are also branded by their experiences.
‘Marks of weakness, marks of woe.’
Breaks from iambic tetrameter used for most of the remainder of the poem, which could reflect how if people rise up against institutions of power, they can free themselves from social restraint.
‘In every infant’s cry of fear’
This is significant because children are supposedly born innocent and shouldn’t have to suffer. The phrase incites sympathy in the reader and also shows pessimistically how every life is destined for misery.
‘Mind-forged manacles’
Internal oppression and weakness, also a culmination of the suffering experienced in the preceding lines.
‘Every black’ning church’
The adjective ‘blackening’ is, at surface level, an acknowledgement of the soot and smoke that polluted every part of London during the 1700s. The figurative interpretation can be found through the negative connotations of immorality and evil derived from ‘black’ning’. It is the moral blackening of the church he is referring to. This can be perceived as a criticism of organised religion, and its failure to provide for the disadvantaged members of society.
‘Appalls’
Connotes dismay/horror, and reflects the lack of action of the church, which should offer support and help to the poor, but instead is focused more on its own wealth. A lack of morality appals those who (like Blake) believe in the true meaning of the bible: importance of loving and caring for others taught by Jesus. It juxtaposes the purity and love expected of the religious institution.
‘Youthful harlot’s curse’
Juxtaposition of innocence of youth with immorality of a harlot.
‘Marriage hearse’
Juxtaposed connotations of new beginnings, joy and happiness of wedding with the end of life and grief of a hearse.
How does the perspective affect the poem?
It’s written with a first-person speaker as a dramatic monologue. It’s quite passionate and it’s about what he sees and experiences, combined with simple language in an almost conversational tone. Blake wanted his poetry to feel accessible to all members of society because it contains messages and views everyone should consider and take on, and this works with a monologue as it sets up a conversation, and seems personal.
How does structure affect the poem?
- It’s cyclical, as the last stanza refocuses on the impact suffering has on people, like in the first and second stanzas. The effect of this is for Blake to suggest that suffering is never-ending, and implies to the reader that they will keep suffering until they break the cycle and rebel, like in the French revolution
- It uses a fairly consistent iambic tetrameter.
