For my English this week, my task was to write an essay on a poem of my choice. I chose London by William Blake, and here is the essay 🙂
London by William Blake: Poem Analysis
I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.In every cry of every Man,
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hearHow the Chimney-sweepers cry
Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace wallsBut most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
One of William Blake’s most famous poems, London explores themes of corruption and oppression as the author takes us on a tour of the gloomy capital city. Originally written for the “Experience” section of his notorious “Songs of Innocence and Experience”, Blake candidly describes London from an angle never before so clearly narrated: that of a city oppressed and contaminated by the workings of a hateful society. Blake is very passionate about the message behind his work, pushing against societal constraints himself in order to make his point, but it is clear from this bold outcry that he refuses to be silenced.
I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow.
Blake opens his poem by briefly establishing the setting. At first glance, Blake seems simply to have described his location in preparation for the true nature of the poem, but a closer look will reveal more sinister notes to these two lines. The words “wander” and “flow” seem to connote freedom, and yet “charter’d” already gives the impression of some restraint. In this way Blake has immediately introduced a sense of oppression to the poem in what is ostensibly a meaningless opening.Even though the wording only hints at the themes to follow, Blake has still chosen his words carefully. A charter is a document that gives or takes permissions. In suggesting that everything from the streets to the Thames has been “charter’d” presents a new and eerie way to subtly describe London’s central theme of societal restraint. The use of a diacope in Lines 1-2─as seen in the repeated use of the word “charter’d”─creates an atmosphere of inescapability from the confining cage that is Blake’s London. It should be noted that, when the author originally wrote the poem as a draft, he used the word “dirty” to replace both uses of “charter’d”, before changing it to the latter to fit the theme of his poem better.
And mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
Again, in Lines 3-4, Blake makes use of a diacope in the words “mark(s)”. Consonance and alliteration come into play in this part of the stanza, expressed in the repetitive syllables of “marks of weakness, marks of woe.” The “marks” referred to could be psychological or physical, but in any case they are portrayed as a direct result of the iron-fisted regime under which London has fallen.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear
In the second verse, Blake switches perspective from vision to sound, narrating the relentless cacophony of wails that he can hear through both day and night. The poem, already emotive and dramatic, becomes even more so in this new stanza, where Blake takes a more personal stance in describing the way in which the citizens suffer. Not only does the author describe the shrieks of frightened newborn babies, but also those of grown men so despairing that they, too, cry aloud. Blake describes how, “in every ban,” or every restriction that the government imposes upon the citizens, he hears the effects of the “mind-forg’d manacles”, metaphorical handcuffs which Blake uses to symbolise the limitation on free will and imagination inflicted by society and authority.
How the Chimney-sweepers cry
Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls
In the last two verses of London, Blake turns to the individual in order to elucidate his point: that society has corrupted everyone of every class and age. He begins with the chimney-sweepers, a common career at that time for young children who could easily fit into the chimneys to clean them. Blake has paired the chimney-sweeps with the “blackning Church” for many reasons. A dirty job, the chimney-sweep would often be covered in soot or ash─“blackened”, like the Church in Line 10. Chimney-sweepers were often paupers or orphans, both of whom the Church held responsibility over. The fact that the latter was in charge of looking after the poor and orphaned but had let them reach this state of desperation is portrayed by Blake as glaring hypocrisy.Blake now turns his attention to the corruption of royalty and government. He proceeds to describe the “hapless” state of the soldiers, men employed young by the military to serve a stranger’s needs. By describing how the blood of these soldiers runs down Palace walls, Blake creates an environment of irony and mockery, subtly blaming the aristocracy for the deaths of innocent young men whom they sent to their slaughter in order to keep their own fortune and riches.
But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
In this verse, Blake tells of the state of corruption and perversion present in the city, specifically writing about perhaps the very lowest class of citizen. He describes how a prostitute, a woman so degraded by a pitiless society, curses at the screams of a frightened newborn. Whether this baby is her own, Blake does not disclose; but in any case, these last four lines illustrate how even the most innocent baby is corrupted from their first day in this world by the curses and screams of the despairing.In the final line of London, Blake describes the prostitute’s cries as “blighting with plagues the Marriage hearse”. By this, the poet means that her desperate cries─or, indeed, her very existence as a prostitute─has marred the institution of marriage, an idea that would usually connote family, love and happiness.