London - William Blake Flashcards
Blake - Context (4)
Born in London / city man
Very religious but deeply critical of the Church
Unhappy with society (poverty, disease, repression) - Industrial Revolution
French Revolution
Wanted Revolution: Q
‘Runs in blood down Palace walls’
When was LONDON written.
1794
5 years after French Revolution
Key themes (2)
Symbiosis between people and place
Ills of society
Ills of society quotes (3)
‘Marks of weakness, marks of woe’
‘New born infants tear’
‘Chimney-sweepers cry’ - (innocent / children sent up Chimneys as small)
Corrupting - polluting lives of people within
‘Black’ning Church’
? Capital significant - not just a Church but THE CHURCH as an institution
Aural imagery? Q (2)
“Infant’s cry’
‘The mind-forg’d manacles I hear’
Brings to mind the clanking of chains in prisons / imagination and spirit trapped in a corrupt society.
Not keen on institution of marriage
‘the Marriage hearse’
Hearse vs (usual) CARRIAGE ? Note again use of capital = Marriage as an institution.
Not keen on marriage - often arranged / restrictive - can cause unhappiness and go against natural desires of human beings.
Form / structure
BALLADIC
story / narrative
rhyme scheme
Regular AB AB
Iambic tetrameter / effect
Four iambs per line
Sing song rhythm contrasts with bleakness of subject matter
Anafora
Repetition of every (including Every man)
Suffering is UBIQUITOUS
Sibilance
‘Hapless Soldier’s sigh’
? Are the capitals significant - not just one soldier but Soldier symbolic of all soldier’s or classical allusion?
