London-William Blake Flashcards
“I wander through each chartered street”
-“I” shows it as a first person narrations which personalises the poem and makes it seem more real,it could also show how even though it is a busy and bustling city you are really just on your own
-“wander” this sounds purposeless which could reflect how he feels powerless to change what is happening
-“each chartered street” suggests the whole city is affected and not just one area (chartered=mapped out or legally defined)
“where the chartered Thames does flow”
-even powerful natural features like the River Thames are under human control,and are affected by the city’s problems
What is the poem about?
-the narrator is describing a walk around London
-he says that everywhere he goes,the people he sees are affected by misery and despair
-the misery seems relentless-no one can escape it,not even the young and innocent
-people in power (like the Church,monarchy and wealthy landowners) seem to be behind the problems,and do nothing to help the people in need
Who was William Blake (AO3)?
-he was an English poet and artist who held quite radical social and political views for the time
-he believed in social and radical equality and also questioned the Church’s teachings
“Marks of weakness,marks of woe”
-the repetition of “marks” emphasises the feeling of bleakness and despair affects everyone and there’s no relief from it
-suggests how the people of London have become drained due to them being put under relentless pressure from the city
“In every cry of every man”
“In every infant’s cry of fear”
-the repetition of ‘every’ and ‘cry’ portrays London as some sort of tortuous and agonising place which to live.They are almost structured in a list,building up a picture of an abundance of suffering
-by having both ‘every man’ and ‘every infant’,we can infer that the pain and suffering is a constant from birth to death.Also showing the diversity of pain
-the hyperbolic phrase ‘in every cry of every man’ at the time of the poem be shocking to the reader,as at the time men showing emotions would contradict beliefs abput male strength and toughness (AO3)
“Mind forged manacles”
-‘manacles’ are chains which hold slaves together,so he says ‘mind forged’ to say the people who live in London are chained up and en slaved both mentally and physically which results in the prevention of thinking as individualists which is what Blake wanted to do as part of the Romantic movement
-this shows them to be lifeless and helpless prisoners to the monarchy
“Every blackening church appalls”
-the use of irony and also an oxymoronic phrase “blackening church” Blake could be exposing authority and those in power as hypocrites and liars,as ‘church’ has connotations of helping,supporting and working together,however the idea of the church being blackened implies that the church has not only been polluted by fumes from the Industrial Revolution but also it has been corrupted and is no longer following expectations
-Blake is suggesting that the church and the rest of the authority don’t deserve this power,as they are taking advantage of people to keep power
-the use of ‘appalls’ he is outing his direct views towards the ways of the church, showing the reader how angry he really is
“The hapless Soldier’s sigh/Runs in blood down Palace walls”
-through this metaphor,Blake highlights the futility of existence
-,the destructive of war or the fact that soldiers who die while following orders have literally given control of their life to their country,and thus lack agency over their fates
-here Blake is criticizing the givernemnt and the monarchy for abusing their power while results in the death of innocent people
-visual image of blood highlights the pain and suffering further
-the use of the adjective ‘hapless’ suggests how clueless soldiers are-their actions is out of their control
-the verb ‘sigh’ implies that even the soldiers disagree with what is happening -they have questioned the very people that are leading hm
“The youthful Harlots curse/Blasts the new-born Infant’s tear”
-the word “youthful’ here is a direct criticism of the conditions for young,working-class women in the time of George III.In London,those who failed to find work fell back on prostitution as the most viable means of subsistence.The fact that ‘Harlots’ is plural suggests how widespread this issue was
-the metaphorical use of ‘blasts’ to describe how cursing affects the baby suggests that children living in poverty are raised in harsh conditions,so their innocence is also lost
-it could also suggests that right from birth a child is predestined to suffering and pain when born in London,the suffering of the city is inescapable,and ‘every’ person is damned to it from birht
What is the importance of the form and structure of the poem?
-the use of dramatic monologue infers that everything he sees,no-one else can,showing the lack of powerthe readers have
-ABAB rhyme scheme and regular stanzas are unbroken and seem to echo the relentless and inescapable misery of the city,could also mimic the dominance the government and society have on its people
-the use of iambic tetrameter creates an underlying somber to outlying the evil of power and the powerless people longing to be free from the control of the higher up
What types of poems did William Blake write?
-as a part of the romantic poets he wrote and illustrated a series of poems called ‘Songs of Experience’ which focus on how innocence is lost and how society has been corrupted (London included)
