Poetry - London Flashcards
Who wrote London
William Blake
London context
The poem ‘London’ is a very detached poem solely observing the town, in which the speaker reflects upon the suffering/vulnerable experience of people under the impact of industrialisation
Totalitarianism
a political system in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible
→ Blake’s against this system
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s quote
Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.
Mood and Atmosphere
1. Gloomy/Apocalyptic
2. Sorrowful/Pitiful
3. Restrictive
London form
Iambic Tetrameter + quatrain:
Blake uses ballard form to voice the people of the street
→ giving the voice to the common people
→ more colloquial/simplistic for memorization
Very strict ABAB rhyme scheme in each of the 4 stanzas
Rigid + repetitive rhythm:
Could possibly reflect the rigid and restrictive system and policy that suppresses individual freedom and desire
Reflects Blake’s view of seeing society as prisons of custom and habit= duty and obedience.
Has a sense of mechanical movement:
Reflects the progression of the Industrial Revolution.
Piston of Mechanisation.
Reflects the pace of walking:
Each stressed syllable reflects each footfall of the narrator.
Slowly describing what he sees as he walks through the street.
London thesis statement
In the poem ‘London’, Blake creates a surrealistic depiction of universal human suffering in order to criticise the impact of the Industrial Revolution on human’s freedom.
London structure
The structure is both chaotic and restrictive.
1. compacted/tight-packed poem with confined imagery
2. each of different elements in the poem is emblematic of something else and dislocated
→ each is attempting to voice their experience, but there is no communication
→ fragmented depiction of personal suffering
→ not united in a form
→ surrealistic concreteness
→ since the experience is ubiquitous
→ the sorrow is like the boots of totalitarianism
London title
London is a specific geographical location - an industrial city in England.
→ stands by itself as the title, without ‘city’
→ could be personified as an active place where human beings are being shackled and chained in their daily lives
→ emphasises both personal/social suffering is happening at the heart of London
→ criticises industrialisation/institution
Tone of the speaker I
The I speaker is detached from the subject of the poem
Hold an observational view from the use of the word ‘mark’ =to notice which is used by the gentlefolks
Change of tone later to show his aggression
Harsh, aggressive, bitter, hateful not just from the speaker but other people in the city
Can also be seen pity/sorrow to some extent with shock and horrify
‘I wander’
Offer a glimpse of different aspects of the city
Almost like snapshots taken by the speaker during his ‘wander thro’ the streets’
Sense of detachedness makes the speaker appear to be more helpless/vulnerable towards the system as he’s incapable of making any changes but to observe.
‘chater’d street’
‘chater’d Thames’
Suggests a sense of imprisonment.
Everything in the poem submits to being ‘chartered’ = mapping out/legalised.
Blake’s repetition of this word reinforces a sense of restriction the speaker feels upon entering the city.
Also could reflect suffocating atmosphere of the city.
‘Marks of weakness, marks of woe’
Alliteration - eternal suffering that people have to endure - woe suggests the unstable society, where marriage often failed.
Repetition of of marks:
Emphasise on the physical marks of degeneration/deterioration/contamination from poverty.
Hard work people have gone through.
Alliteration ‘weakness’ and woe’ draws emphasis on the feeling of severity and the widespread effect on the people.
Repetition of ‘In every …’
Evoke a sense of prevalence/ubiquity.
Suggesting that the bad and the negative befall on everyone.
Rhythm hammers through the poem of totalitarianism.
Gloomy, negative and threatening & restrictive.
‘mind forg’d manacles’
‘mind-forged’ implies they are created internally in one’s person.
‘manacles’ = mind chains that are placed on someone by one in authority.
Rich and multi-layered.
Link to Infant Sorrow (child at the end of the poem already in its mind restricted and confined in itself).
Shows the tension between internal and external forces that take away liberty.
A mental restriction is in place upon these people of London enforced by the totalitarian system.
The image breaks beyond the form of the poem and expresses both the oppressor and oppressed in London.
The most political poem written by Blake.
‘I hear’
Auditory language - emphasises that the sound of the poem are real and can be heard beyond the formal expression found in the ballad.
‘cry of fear’, ‘chimney sweeper’s cry’, ‘soldier’s sigh’, ‘young harlot’s curse’
Through the images evoked in the reader’s mind, we can clearly hear these distressing and stark sound coming alive → at the same time, use of these negative, repetitive diction choices allows Blake to express sounds of anger.
‘Chimney Sweeper cry’
Chimney sweepers are created because of the industrialisation.
The children are forced to sweep inside the chimney where their feet are burnt from the fire and prone to developing limb deformation.
Shows the exploitation of child labour in London.
Reveal effects of industrialisation’s destructive potentials.
