LONDON-BY WILLIAM BLAKE

POINTS-

 INTRO. OF POET
 INTRO. OF POEM
 SUMMARY
 POEM TEXT
 THEME
 SETTING
 EXPLAINATION
 LITERARY DEVICES
 POETIC DEVICES
 FORM,METER,RHYME
 QUESTIONS
 TITLE JUSTIFICATION

ABOUT THE POET-He was first generation romantic poet like poet William
wordsworth,[Link] lived for 69 years,he worked as painter and printmaker though in
his poet line he was unrecognized during his lifetime. He was considered as mad ‘insane’ by by
his [Link] 2002 blake voted at no.38 in bbc poll of 100 great Britons ie even after
death he got recognition very late. He was a visionary poet of romantic age(expressed his idea
in words and images .he spent his life especially final years in poverty he was a religious person
committed [Link] school upto 10 yrs of age .His first work is in poetical sketches
(1783)."London" is a poem by William Blake, published in Songs of Experience in 1794.
It is one of the few poems in Songs of Experience that does not have a corresponding
poem in Songs of Innocence. Blake lived in London so writes of it as a resident rather
than a visitor. The poems reference the "Two Contrary States of the Human Soul". The
"Songs of Innocence" section contains poems which reference love, childhood and
nature.. William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet,
painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a
seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. he
produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of works, which embraced the
imagination as "the body of God"[6] or "human existence itself".[7] Although Blake was
considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he is held in high regard
by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and
mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been
characterised as part of the Romantic movement and as "Pre-Romantic".SONGS OF
INNCOENCE-1789-19POEMS, SONGS OF EXPERIENCE-1794-26 POEMS

Died 12 August 1827 (aged 69)

Charing Cross, London, England[1]

INTRODUCTION TO THE POEM- IT WAS PUBLISHED IN 1794 INCLUDED IN THE

VLOUME CALLED SONGS OF [Link] poem has 4 [Link] stanza
has four lines following a,b,a,b [Link] poet has displayed the
oppressive,negative pictue of London and thus gives a social criticism to the 18 th
century [Link] starting blake used to love London but due to industrial
revolution ,and French revolution changed the picture of [Link] british govt.
began to oppress the civil democratic [Link] small children are even forced
to sweep [Link] here blake became a voice for those who are neglected,
marginalized and [Link] poem portrays childhood and adolescence and
[Link] poet find London a place of unhappy people,the poet attacks on the
civilisaton of the London [Link] of all comforts ad luxuries in their lives,
the people of London are not happy at [Link] woes and pains have stricken
their faces [Link] poor section of society is being crushed in this [Link]
society in London is corrupt and the society itself is responsible for it. Songs of
Innocence and Experience was originally hand-printed and illustrated by Blake in
1794.[2] Punctuation: as can be seen in the image, there are capital letters,
commas, and full stops (periods). 

This poem is taken from “songs of experience”. It reveals the poet's feelings towards the
society in which he lived. England in the 1800s became very oppressive, influenced by
fears over the French Revolution. Laws began to be imposed which restricted the
freedom of individuals. At first, Blake loved London, writing about “golden London and
her silver Thames, throng’d with shining spires and corded ships”(Poetical Sketches),
but after the French Revolution, the British government began to oppress the civil
democratic activities, making London quite different from before: "everything was
covered with darkness, terrors and miseries.” (Zhan,2013). Thus he shows a negative
picture of London, and offers social criticism of 18th-century England. [3] An Acrostic can
be found in the third stanza. The word "Hear" is spelled out in the first letters of each
line. This acrostic is foreshadowed in the last word of the second stanza. [4]

SUMMARY

London was a bad place back in the 1790s. Just ask the speaker of this poem, who takes a walk
around an area near the Thames. He can hear all kinds of cries, from adults and kids alike. He
sees people who look just awful, a church that's getting blacker all the time, and a palace that
appears to have blood on its walls. Eesh. While walking at midnight, he hears something really
bad: a harlot (prostitute) cursing her infant for crying. All in all? Bad times, y'all.

Poem[edit]
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 hear

How the Chimney-sweepers cry

Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls

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

Themes

 The Oppression of Urban Life

In “London,” the speaker takes a walk through the titular city and finds only misery. The dirty and
dangerous city is an intense expression of human life—not at its fullest, but at its most depraved and
impoverished. Blake was notably writing at a time when the Industrial Revolution was at full pace,
restructuring society in a way that he believed made people lose sight of what it means to be human.
Blake uses "London" to argue that this urban environment is inherently oppressive and denies people the
freedom to live happy, joyful lives.

The poem opens with the speaker’s experience of walking through the city. Through the speaker’s eyes
and ears, the reader gets a strong sense of the dismal lives of the Londoners. The people are “marked”
by “weakness” and “woe"; the streets and even the river Thames are “charter’d”—that is, their courses
have been decided for them. (Rivers are often a symbol of freedom, but not in this poem.)
 The speaker also hears pain everywhere—it’s “in every voice,” even that of newborn babies—and it's
caused by “mind-forg’d manacles.” Manacles are a type of physical restraint, like handcuffs, but these
particular manacles are “mind-forg’d”—that is, they come from thought rather than the physical world. The
root cause of London’s misery, it seems, is the way that humanity thinks about itself, the way that society
has been conceived and developed. The speaker suggests that society could be joyful, free, and full of
love, but that people's fear, greed, and thirst for power have made the urban environment unbearably
oppressive.

Though the poem doesn’t delve too deeply into the way it thinks society should be, it's very clear about
the strong links between misery and its urban setting. At the time of Blake's writing London was (and still
is) one of the busiest, most developed urban environments in the world. The poem argues that this way of
life—with its focus on economic activity and individualism—is fundamentally flawed.

To emphasize the point that the city environment itself oppresses its inhabitants, the speaker gestures
towards some of the desperate measures people take in order to survive. The chimney-sweepers, who
are only children, put their health at great risk to earn a living; both the soldiers and the harlots (female
prostitutes), in different ways, must sell their bodies in order to survive. In other words, everyone is
trapped by their situation, forced to exchange the only things they have—their bodies—in order to,
paradoxically, keep those bodies alive.

What's more, the poem offers no real hope that society may find a way to cast off its “mind-forg’d
manacles.” Note that the poem emphasizes the next generation in closing on the “youthful Harlots” and
the “new-born infants.” This image turns what should be a joyous celebration of new life into an initiation
into poverty, pain, and hopelessness; it implies the cyclical nature of London's poverty, and suggests
people don’t have the freedom to escape their urban woes.

The poem, then, views modern city life as hopelessly oppressive. With the Industrial Revolution at full
pace, London was undergoing significant and speedy changes. The poem argues these changes aren't
for the better, and its criticism of London may be just as relevant to today’s cities.

The Corruption of Childhood

"London" also touches on an important theme throughout Blake's work, one that is especially prominent in
his Songs of Innocence and Experience: the corruption of childhood. Blake believed that people are born
with everything they need for a joyful, loving, and happy life—but that the adult world corrupts this
innocent state. In this poem, the speaker describes how children are essentially crushed by the adult
world, thus building a vivid argument supporting Blake's broader belief.

The speaker of "London" presents urban children as being in distress from the moment they are born. For
example, line 15 describes how newborn babies are "blasted" by the curses of their impoverished
prostitute mothers. With this image, the speaker gestures towards an ongoing cycle of misery—miserable
mothers lead to miserable children, who may themselves create more miserable children later on—that is
integral to the urban environment. Similarly, in line 6, infants are characterized as consistently crying, and
these cries are specifically related to the fear they feel. It is as though they can sense the misery around
them, before they've even developed their ability to meaningfully perceive and make sense of the world.

Perhaps the most poignant reference to childhood corruption is in line 9, when the speaker discusses the
chimney-sweepers. Chimney-sweeping was a brutal but very common profession in London in Blake's
day, and it was work that children were frequently sold or forced into. (Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper"
poems discuss this theme in greater detail.) Like the prostitutes and the soldiers mentioned elsewhere in
the poem, the impoverished children of London are forced to exchange their one possession—their
bodies—for money, food, and/or lodging. In other words, they give up their childhood—when they should
be playing and learning about the world—in order to merely survive. And doing so, of course, actually
diminishes their chances of survival, because chimney sweeping places them in toxic and physically
dangerous environments.

Through the images of childhood suffering that the speaker observes and recreates for readers, Blake
seems to suggest that the oppression of children is one of the worst examples of how the "mind-forg'd
manacles" of urban life and industrialization corrupt society.

SETTING
London: around 1794—that's the short answer to the question of where this poem takes
place. Word.

Well, if that's the short answer, what's the long(er) answer? Well, the longer answer is:
the slums of London in 1794. Now the speaker of this poem doesn't have any specific
area of London in mind, just any generic, dirty place where you might conceivably hear
harlots cursing and babies crying audibly, a place where "plagues," in the loose sense
of disease, might be more widespread, a place where grown men cry and almost
everybody is "marked" by "marks of weakness, marks of woe." Simply put, this poem
deals with the parts of London where lower class citizens, prostitutes, former soldiers
who are now broken, and the like might congregate.
Okay, that's cool, but why not just call the poem "The Slums of London"? That's a good
question—hang on a sec while we get William Blake on the line. Okay, he's just
informed us that the poem is just called "London" because, while only some areas of
London are characterized by these sorts of things, all of London will be plagued by them
if things don't change. If the government doesn't stop starting wars and getting blood on
its hands, and if the church doesn't stop getting blacker and blacker, the city will
crumble into a big mess of poverty, disease, and all sorts of other, metaphorical
"manacles." (Thanks for the 411 there, Blakey.)

Slice o' Life

Another way to look at this little issue is like so: The speaker describes a small slice of
London; obviously, there were nice, clean parts of the city in 1794. By acting as though
all of London could be summed up in 16 lines that describe some pretty horrific stuff, the
speaker makes the point that a city like London can't simply be divided into good and
bad, clean and dirty, rich and poor. The fact of the matter is, the bad parts of London
are part of the same geographical space as the good parts, and the good parts are in
some ways responsible for creating the bad (the blood on the palace walls, for example,
links this royal residence with war, death, and all sorts of other bad things). London, like
a chain, is only as strong as its weakest link.
On top of all this, it is important to know a thing or two about the historical
circumstances of the 1790s. If you've read our "In a Nutshell" section, you know that
things were really heating up back then, politically speaking. Revolution was in the air,
largely as a result of all the upheaval happening across the water in France. Besides
cracking down on the expression of revolutionary sentiments, the British government
declared war on France in 1793, and would remain continuously at war with their long-
time enemy for the next twenty years or so.

Besides all the political business, there was the social and cultural business. Socially
conscious fellows like Blake not only had to worry about their repressive, war-
mongering government, but also about things like child labor and a church that, from
time to time, condoned barbaric practices like chimney sweeping (check out our
"Detailed Summary" of lines 9-10 for more on this). Toss into the mix poverty,
prostitution, and disease and you start to get an idea of why somebody like Blake would
write a poem like "London." The combination of war abroad and all kinds of
reprehensible stuff at home, made for a rather tumultuous historical climate.

EXPLAINATION
-STANZA1-in the first stanza the poet talks about the street of [Link] hears the call of a chimney [Link] is a
[Link] earns his living by sweepting a chimney, it is a difficult job , but the poor child has to do it for survival .the root
of chimney makes his clothes and face black.
Stanza 2 –here he say when he is roaming in the London street he can hear every man;s cry –the cry of the
infants(who even not yet learnt to talk-but still from their cry the poet can hear their miserable state.
Stanza 3 –the industrialisaton lead to exploitation of children , the blake criticize the church as they can help the poor
but they have blackened with the premature deaths so many children who died bcoz of injury or ill-health while
performing the job of seeping chimney, the church is not associated in helping people doing good deeds, they are too
assaulting, the soldiers are unlucky as they are shedding their blood for these [Link] poet condemns the
powerful institution like church,royal palce,new industries.

Stanza 4-here the poet brings out the cry of unmarried mother and young mothers unwillingness for her
unwanted child and the misery or sorrowful plight of both the mother and her child.

Stanza 1
Lines 1-2

I wander thro' each charter'd street,

Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
 The speaker begins "London" by telling us a little story. He wanders through
each "charter'd street" that happens to be "near where the charter'd Thames
does flow."

 Hmm, seems a little repetitive doesn't it? True, but this is probably because the
speaker really wants to emphasize this whole "charter'd" business.
 Speaking of which, that little word can mean a number of different things. In this
context, it has the sense of "confined" or "mapped out" or "legally defined."

 Hmm, what do we mean by "legally defined"? Well, "charter" often refers to a

document issued by a government or political official that grants certain rights or
privileges, defines an entity, that sort of thing. 
  In these lines "charter'd" evokes all of these different senses. The speaker is
suggesting that the streets of London, and even the Thames itself (the river that
flows through London), are increasingly the subject of government control.

 Alternatively, they are increasingly constricted, rigidly defined—in other words,

not "open" or "free." 

 Now we should tell you that, in lots and lots of Blake's poems, both in the Songs
of Innocence and Experience and elsewhere, constriction, narrowness, and the
government are usually not the greatest of things. Blake is always about
openness, freedom, imagination. 

 To summarize then: the speaker wanders through London, and notices that
something is amiss.
(History note: Just in case you wanted to know, here's an idea of what the
Thames may have looked like in Blake's day.)

Lines 3-4
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
 And sure enough, all those ominous hints in the word "charter'd" are made much
more explicit when the speaker, as he does now, tells us what he sees.

 He is able to "mark," or observe, in every face he meets, "marks of weakness,

marks of woe."

 These sad signs are on every face that he meets. 

 Well that's not good, but what is the cause of these marks? Well, that's just it. He
doesn't tell us, at least not in these lines. 

 All we learn is that society doesn't seem to be a good place—everybody seems

worn down, tired, hurt, in pain, etc.

 Now, there is one little funny thing about that word "mark" that you should be
aware of. Sometimes, it means to make a mark, or a note (as in your bowling
league: "Mark it zero, dude. Next frame.")

 It is possible that these "marks" aren't actually there in any real sense, but that
the speaker is marking them (imprinting them) on people he sees. In other words,
it's possible that these "marks" are just in the speaker's head.
  We know this sounds totally bizarre and weird, but for a writer like Blake the
double meanings of words like "mark" are always at play. And besides, Blake is a
writer is always interested in the question of what is actually real and what we
make ourselves and pretend is real.

 Think of it kind of like a person on drugs: they may see things that they think are
really there, but aren't. Under the influence of the drug their brains convince them
such things are real.
 Blake himself actually saw tons of crazy stuff that he thought was real (like the
ghost of his brother), so this example isn't really that ridiculous.

 In fact, lots of people in the nineteenth century thought Blake was really, really
wacky. And in many ways, he really kind of was. We mean, could a totally sane,
normal, run-of-the-mill person really draw this. So, it seems like a good idea to
keep an eye on the issue of what is real and what is not real in this poem. 

 Quick form and meter check: The poem seems to be written mostly in iambic 

tetrameter. This means that each line contains four (tetra-) iambs. 

 Or, most lines do. Lucky for us, one of the few exceptions to the tetrameter
happens in this stanza. Line 4 contains only 7 syllables, which means we're one
short. OMG, what does this all mean? Head on over to "Form and Meter" to
read a possible explanation. Don't worry. We'll still be here when you get back.
Stanza 2
Lines 5-8

In every cry of every man,

In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

 In a textbook display of anaphora, the speaker tells us in the second stanza that
he "hears" the "mind-forg'd manacles" in just about everything.

 The speaker can hear "mind-forg'd manacles" everywhere.

 That sounds bad, but what are they? This phrase is very famous, and is not easy
to define.

 First up: "manacles." Those are shackles, irons, handcuffs, things like that—
really anything that confines, or constricts.
 This goes hand in hand with all that business about "charter'd" we discussed in
lines 1-4. The same goes for "ban." A ban, or prohibition, is a form of restriction.

 Meanwhile, what about "mind-forg'd"? This is definitely kind of weird, and there
are a couple ways to understand it (we think).

 First, it might help to think of "mind" in a very general, historical sense, as in "the
late eighteenth century mind" or something like that. In a way, "mind" refers to
the larger set of historical circumstances—intellectual, political, and the like—that
collectively make up "London" in the later eighteenth century. It is some
combination of the Industrial Revolution and the politics that lead to "charter'd"
streets, among other things, that creates the "manacles" that shackle the people
the speaker sees.

 So that's one way to see this, but what about some of those "other" ways to
understand these lines? 

 We told you in our summary of lines 1-4 that Blake likes to blur the line between
imagination and reality. Well, the whole "mind-forg'd" business again reminds us
that one particular speaker is viewing everything. It's entirely possible that these
"manacles" he supposedly sees are the product of his own "mind." In this sense,
the manacles aren't real but, potentially, "forg'd" by his own mind. Hmm,
intriguing.
 Alternatively, it is even possible that these manacles aren't "real" or tangible in
the same way as handcuffs, but are rather more like mental shackles. In other
words, the speaker may be claiming that the evils he sees aren't tangible, like
"marks of weakness" or "marks of woe," but rather intangible in the way that a
mindset or way of thinking is.

 Putting this another way, you could say that the thing that really imprisons or
manacles the people the speaker meets is not something obvious like poverty or
disease, but the way they think, the way they approach life. 

 From this perspective, the solution is simply a matter of changing the way one
looks at things, turning one's "mind" into a source of freedom rather than
confinement.

 Phew. That's a whole lot packed into just a few words isn't it? 
  But hey, in our "Nutshell" and "Why Should I Care?" sections we promised to
prove to you that these little kiddy poems of Blake's were really, really complex.
Following our lead now?
Stanza 3
Lines 9-10

How the Chimney-sweeper's cry

Every blackning Church appalls;

 Things start to get just a wee bit trickier in the poem's third stanza. Don't worry,
we said "wee bit," and we meant "wee bit."

 The key here is that you have to pretend the word "hear" is still floating around
somewhere. In other words, the speaker also "hears" how the chimney-
sweeper's cry "appals" "every blackning Church."
 Yes, "appalls" is the verb that goes with "chimney-sweeper's cry." It's weird that it
occurs at the end of the line, but that's okay. This is poetry.

 A chimney sweeper, or a chimney sweep, is, or was, exactly that: somebody that
cleans chimneys. Back in Blake's day, this wonderful, disgusting, dirty,
dangerous job was usually reserved for children, as you can read about here. 

 Did we say kids? Yes, kids, usually really young ones. These little kids went
down the chimneys to clean them because they were small enough to fit, and
hence ideal for the task. You see, there weren't really any child labor laws, more
like none whatsoever. While eventually kids received protection from this
sanctioned abuse (there's really no other way to describe it), it lasted long
enough. Chimney sweeping was a really dangerous job. Most of the kids that
were lucky enough to do the work were orphans (often under the protection of
the church), and they usually didn't bathe very often and were thus dirty for days
on end.

 Besides being really icky, soot, as you may have guessed, is also very
carcinogenic. Lots of kids got lots of cancer from spending so much time working
in it.

 Also, the risk of going down a chimney to clean it, Santa Claus style, and then
getting stuck was totally real, if not common, or always likely. So, just add this to
the whole cancer thing.
 Anyway, as we mentioned, this job usually fell to orphans in the care of the
church and other religious institutions, which explains why the speaker mentions
a "blackning Church."
 Speaking of that church, let's make sure we're on the same page with that word
"blackning." That word just means "blackening," but it's not clear if the church is
becoming blacker (i.e., in a state of blackening) or blackening other things (like
little kids).

 Come to think of it, they're both kind of the same thing. The church, which was
partly responsible for this whole chimney sweeping business, was responsible for
"blackening" those little kids.

 It made them both literally blacker (they were covered in soot) but
also metaphorically blacker, in the sense of less innocent and closer to death
(death is often associated in poetry and elsewhere with the color black).

 Because the church is involved in this deplorable practice, it, as an institution, is

becoming blacker—less good, pure, and devoted to the betterment of humanity.

 All of this brings us back to that strange word "appalls." We'll admit, it's a funny
word to use here—and not funny as in hilarious, but funny as in strange. It seems
to have the sense of "shames" or "casts aspersion on," or something like that.
The chimney sweepers cry, the church is partly responsible for it, therefore that
cry shames the church.

 Note: it is possible that the church is appalled by the cries, in the sense of
shocked, but this seems less likely, given the church's historical ties to the
practice. 

 And we wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't tell you that Blake was really, really
against child labor. Side note: is anybody actually pro child labor (aside from The
Simpsons' Mr. Burns, that is)?
 Anyway, chimney sweeping was one of Blake's go-to points of attack when it
came to the whole child labor business, but also, as we see here, when it came
to attacking his own historical moment. This chimney sweeping stuff irritated him
so much that he wrote two poems about it, one each in the Songs of
Innocence and the Songs of Experience. You can read about those poems
right here and here. 
  As for just what exactly these lines mean, well, get your metaphor caps on
because the speaker is leaving the literal behind.

 Obviously, a chimney-sweeper's "cry" can't really do anything physical to a

church, so we'll have to come up with some other kind of explanation.

Lines 11-12
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.
 If you're expecting to have to carry that word "hear" again you can relax. Here,
the speaker simply states a fact, as a sort of addendum to his little bit about the
chimney sweeping stuff.

 Now he tells us that there's a "hapless" (i.e., unfortunate) soldier, whose "sigh /
Runs in blood down Palace walls." Well, cool.

 We didn't know sighs could actually run down walls in the form of blood.

 You didn't know that because it doesn't really happen. This is all part of a gnarly
metaphor.
 The basic idea is that the Palace, which is here a symbol for government,
royalty, etc., has blood on its hands, so to speak.

 Okay, but what are we to do with these bizarre lines? Think of it like this. First,
the soldier sighs about something (his recent wartime experiences, his
government's military policy, etc.).

 This sigh, an exhalation of breath, is the expression of whatever is bothering or

upsetting the soldier. And we know that, because he's "hapless," he's helpless to
do anything about what's bothering him—except, you know, sigh in blood.

 The sigh runs in blood because, well, it has to do with the palace—i.e. the
government that dictates policy in the first place.

 It's like the soldier exhales, an ineffectual, "hapless" gesture that shows how
powerless he is to change his situation. Instead, all he can do is defend the all-
powerful Palace, or (worse) enforce its orders with violence (after all, soldiers
tend to be trained to do that sort of thing). 

 And so, the expression of both his discontent and powerlessness (the sigh) turns
to blood and runs down the palace walls. The Palace is marked by the bloodshed
 that the solider would be forced to carry out. This image, then, is another
reminder of the "manacles" the speaker mentions in line 8. He says that these
restrictions are everywhere, but now in this stanza he's giving us two examples to
prove his point: the suffering chimney sweep and the solider—who as a tool of
the "Palace" (or government), is powerless to prevent himself from causing the
suffering ("blood") of others.
Stanza 4
Lines 13-16

But most thro' midnight streets I hear

How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
ADVERTISING

 The poem's final stanza has arrived. After that whole business about "mind-forg'd
manacles," these are the most famous lines in the poem.

 The speaker hears lots of things, but "most" of all he hears a youthful harlot at
midnight—not just any old harlot (prostitute), but one who is young (sigh) and
cursing a "new-born Infant's tear."

 Okay, so there's a foul-mouthed prostitute and a "new-born Infant." Is it her child?

Maybe, but we don't know for sure. 

 But it doesn't really matter. The point the speaker is making is that babies are
born into a world where young women have become prostitutes (harlots), and
their tears (babies cry a lot) get cursed at instead of soothed. ("Blasts" here
means something like "attacked" or "assaulted," but in a very metaphorical way.
It's like saying, "I went out in the street and my ears were blasted by that guy
next door's loud lawnmower.")

 In addition to this whole business about children being born into a corrupt, dirty
world—cursing, harlots, blasting—there's something else going on. This same
harlot-curse, which "blasts" the baby's tear, also "blights with plagues the
Marriage hearse."

 Again, like that stuff earlier with the blood and the sighs, this is some really gnarly
metaphorical stuff. 
  The words "blight" and "plague" are similar. They both refer to disease—a plague
is, well, a plague, whereas the noun "blight" describes a kind of barrenness or
infertility usually brought on by drought or disease.
 But "blight" here is a verb, so we'll take it to mean something like "tarnishes,"
even "mars" or "destroys." 

 Basically, then, the harlot's curse, which is probably a symbol for her terrible life
experiences (much like the soldier's sigh is for his), totally ruins the "marriage
Hearse." The curse—the fact that there even is a youthful harlot in existence—
completely destroys the institution of marriage. It "plagues" it, so to speak. 

 This is why the speaker uses the semi-oxymoronic phrase "marriage Hearse."

We associate marriage with children, life, union.

 A hearse, obviously, symbolizes death. Marriage is a "hearse" because, well,

unmarried harlots are running around, babies seem to have no mothers (who is
the mother of this baby again?), and there are no fathers to be found.

 Marriage has been plagued, we might say, both figuratively and perhaps even

literally. How? Well, "plague" may possibly be a reference to venereal disease,
which definitely existed in Blake's day. The marriage hearse may be blighted,
potentially, by the transmission of whatever diseases the harlot's profession has
given her.

 The harlot, in other words, engages in prostitution, which gives her some kind of
sexual "plague," which she brings to her marriage (as well as the marriages of
her clients).

 But hey, marriage is already a "hearse" anyway (an institution of death)—at least
according to this speaker—so this just adds insult to injury.
 So, in the speaker's "London," life is not a bowl of cuddly babies and happily-
ever-afters. Instead, it's disease, suffering, and misery. Bad times.

Literary Devices
iterary devices are tools used by writers to convey their emotions, ideas, and themes to make
texts more appealing to the reader. William Blake has employed some literary devices in this
poem to picture the image of London in the early 18  century. The analysis of some of the
th

literary devices used in this poem is given below.

 1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. For example, the
sound of /e/ in “In every voice: in every ban”.
2. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. For example,
the sound of /s/ in “Marks of weakness, marks of woe”.
3. Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick
succession. For example, the sound of /s/ in “And the hapless Soldiers sigh”.
4. Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break;
rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example,

“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.”

5. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For
example, “I wander thro’ each charter’d street”, “How the Chimney-sweepers cry” and “Runs in
blood down Palace walls.”
6. Symbolism: Symbolism means to use symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them
symbolic meanings that are different from the literal meanings. Here, “soldier’s sigh” symbolizes
the state of frustration, “chimney sweeper” is the symbol of death, darkness and destruction
and “harlot’s curse” symbolizes the prostitute’s pathetic life experiences.
7. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between
the objects different in nature. For example, “The mind-forg’d manacles I hear” is
a metaphor for the hardships of the people working in industries, which is equal to working in
prison.
8. Anaphora: It refers to the repetition of a word or expression in the first part of some verses. The
below lines express the sorrow of the citizens suppressed under the upper class.

“In every cry of every Man,

In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban.”

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “London”

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of
some of the poetic devices used in this poem.

1. Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are four stanzas in this poem, with each
having four lines in it.
2. Quatrain: A quatrain is a four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian poetry. Here, each stanza is
quatrain as the first one.
3. Rhyme Scheme: The poem follows the ABAB rhyme scheme and this pattern continuous till the
end.
4. End Rhyme: End rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. For example, “cry/sigh”,
“hear/tear” and “flow/woe.”

FORM AND METER

Iambic Tetrameter, with Substitutions

For the most part, "London" is written in iambic tetrameter. This little meter is very
similar to iambic pentameter, except that, instead of five iambs there are only four
iambs (tetra means four, so tetrameter means four of the same meter). Now, an iamb is
a beat that consists of an unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable. It sounds
like daDUM (if you say "allow" out loud, you'll hear an iamb). For example:
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow. (2)

Voila, perfecto, neato-frito. Ladies and gentlemen, iambic tetrameter.

Sadly, not every single line in this poem is so perfect. Take a glance at line 11:

And the hapless Soldier's sigh.

You'll notice that the first beat (or foot) contains two unstressed syllables followed by a
stressed syllable, while the last two beats are your regular, run-of-the-mill iambs. Come
to think of, there are a number of other lines that contain only seven syllables (like this
one), including lines 4, 9-12, and 14-15. Many of them also contain anapests (two
unstressed syllables, followed by a stressed syllable).

Okay, so what are we to make of this metrical variation, of which our friend William
Blake was quite fond? Well, we have a few different answers for you. The shift from 8
beats to 7 is quite noticeable. In fact, it's interesting that the first time this occurs is in
line 4, precisely when Blake is talking about "marks of weakness" and "marks of woe."
At that exact moment, the meter itself becomes weak—7 is less than 8, right? The
same is true of the poem's third stanza, in which every line contains only 7 syllables.
That stanza might be read as a further description of those same "marks."
Our astonishment at this little metrical hiccup mimics the speaker's own astonishment at
all the weakness and woe around him. Alternatively, you could say that the line itself is
plagued by a weakness—it has one less syllable than it should. It is sick, incomplete,
imperfect—just like all the people the speaker meets.

Here's another little factoid. There are exactly 7 lines that contain 7 syllables. Well
cheers for that one William Blake. In a poem of 16 lines, this is almost half of the poem.
This division between types of lines reflects the divisions and fractures that the speaker
sees everywhere in London.

It also reminds us of one of Blake's other major themes: the ways in which social life is
constricted, confined, repressed, etc. etc. Think of words like "charter'd," "manacles,"
and "ban," for example. In other words, just about half of the lines in this poem are
marked, to use one of Blake's own words, as restricted or compressed or confined. 7 is
less than 8, which makes those lines with fewer syllables seem, well, a little restricted.

If it sounds like we're repeating ourselves, that's because we've been infected by the
repetitive spirit of this poem. Notice how many words appear two or more times
("charter'd," "marks," "Infant," "cry," "street"). Notice also how the poem rhymes—this
too is a form of repetition. In each stanza, every other line rhymes (which gives us
a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GDGD). The repetition of sound suggests that
what the speaker sees around him is cyclical or repetitive—that the evils of London will
continue to persist. This is nowhere more evident than in the fact that the lone E
rhyming sound of lines 6, 8, 14, and 16 ("fear," "hear," "hear," "tear") occurs in both the
second and fourth stanzas.

TITLE JUSTIFICATION-
It's just called "London." That's simple enough, isn't it? It's amazing that one word
makes us think of so many things: the Thames, Westminster Abbey, the Crown Jewels,
Big Ben, Charles Dickens, bad food, rain, etc. It's reasonable to assume that, when he
wrote this poem, Blake was definitely planning on his readers thinking of all, or at least
some, of those things.

So the very word "London" conjures up so many things, none of which, come to think of
it, are actually described in this poem. That magical word "London" is kind of like a
fishing lure. It attracts our attention, dazzles us with its sheen, and then—Wham! We're
snagged by something unexpected. It seems like a cruel little trick, but Blake is no
different in this regard than so many other artists.
In general, the word "London" leads us to believe that this poem is a little travelogue of
sorts, a description of a place. And that is essentially what it is, but it is a very narrow, or
"charter'd," in the poem's words, view. We see London, sure, but it's the city's dirty
underbelly, the dark parts that nobody talks about at parties. If the poem had been titled
"The Gross, Filthy, Bad Things About London," would you want to read it? Meh, maybe
not so much.

What Is Blake's Message in the Poem "London"?

Published in 1794, "London" is a poem by British writer William Blake. The poem has a
somber, morbid tone and reflects Blake's unhappiness and dissatisfaction with his life in
London. Blake describes the troublesome socioeconomic and moral decay in London
and residents' overwhelming sense of hopelessness. "London" offers little inspiration for
those who must endure the oppressive and stifling environment.

Industrial Revolution's drawbacks

Blake wants readers to increase their awareness of the degrading conditions in London.
The industrial revolution has taken its toll on citizens who now feel tired, sad and
disconnected. Conditions in the city have worsened under the government's economic
and social control, and people have abandoned much of their moral and ethical
behavior.

Blake's message is a wake-up call, so readers won't be lulled into believing that their
current situation is acceptable, much less ideal.

Summary

In the first stanza, the speaker provides the setting and tone.  The setting can of course be
derived from the title,  but the first stanza also reveals that the speaker is walking down a
street.  He says that he “wander[s] down each chartered street”. The term “wander” gives
some insight into the speaker as well.  He appears to be not quite sure of himself,  and a bit
misguided, if not entirely lost. The use of the term “chartered” also suggests that the streets
he walks are controlled and rigid. He is not walking in a free, open field, but a confined,
rigid, mapped out area. The speaker will expound upon this idea later on in ‘London’. As he
walks, he notices something about the faces of the people walking by.  There seem to be
the marks of weariness in them all. He describes their faces as having “weakness” and “woe”.
This sets up the tone as melancholy. The gloom and the sadness seem to seep from the
speaker’s voice as he describes the passersby.

While the first stanza sets up the tone of ‘London’, the second stanza gives some insight into
the speaker’s melancholy feelings toward the people he watches pass him by. The speaker
reveals that from the cry of the newborn infant, to the cry of the full-grown man, he hears
the “mind forg’d manacles”. This gives insight into his despairing view of mankind. The
“manacles” are shackles or some kind of chain that keeps a person imprisoned. The fact that
these chains are “mind forg’d” reveals that they are metaphorical chains created by the
people’s own ideas. The use of the word “ban” reveals that these manacles are placed there
by society. A ban, of course, is a restriction given by law. The speaker’s use of words such as
“Charterd” “ban” and “manacles” reveal his belief that society metaphorically imprisons
people.  Suddenly, it becomes apparent that the thoughts, pressures, and ideals of society
are under scrutiny here.

In this stanza of ‘London’, the speaker digs even deeper into the reasons for his feelings
toward humanity. He implies that the shackles worn by the people and inflicted by society
have some disastrous results. He begins with the Chimney sweeper. The Chimney sweeper
was one of the poorest of society. His life expectancy was threatened because of his line of
work. He was consistently dirty and sick. Those of the lowest class were forced into this kind
of work in order to provide for their families. Then, the speaker criticizes the church, calling
it “blackning” and claiming that even the church “appalls” at the Chimney sweeper. Often,
the chimney sweepers were just children. They were small enough to fit down the chimneys.
These children were often orphaned children, and the church was responsible for them. This
explains why the poet ties the chimney sweepers with the “blackning church”.

The speaker then turns his attentions to the “hapless soldier”. He has already criticized
society, pointed out the misfortunes of the poor and the hypocrisy of the church, and now
he will also criticize the government by suggesting that the soldiers are the poor victims of a
corrupt government. He reveals his feelings toward war by describing the blood that runs
down the palace walls. The palace, of course, is where royalty would have lived. Thus, the
speaker accuses the higher up people in his society of spilling the blood of the soldiers in
order to keep their comfort of living in a palace.
In the final stanza, the speaker reveals how the corruptness of society attacks innocence. He
says that he hears the “youthful Harlot’s curse…”. The idea of a youthful harlot suggests the
level of poverty and corruption, that a girl who was yet a youth would be involved in
prostitution. Then, things become even more interesting, as the speaker reveals the object
of the Harlot’s cursing. She curses at the tears of a newborn baby. This is the ultimate attack
upon innocence. The speaker does not reveal whether the harlot is the mother of the baby
or not, but he does imply that rather than comforting a crying infant, she curses it. This
reveals the hardened heart of the harlot, which represents the hardened heart of society at
large. While the innocent shed tears, the perverted attack them.

The last line of ‘London’reveals the speaker’s thoughts on marriage as well. The Harlot,
apparently, has “blighted” the “marriage hearse”. She has deranged marriage by having sold
her body before ever entering into the marriage union. Although the speaker believes that
the Harlot has somehow damaged marriage, he also reveals his beliefs about marriage in
the first place. The fact that he calls it a “marriage hearse” reveals that he views marriage as
death. Overall, the poem has criticized society, the church, prostitution, and even marriage.
The innocent baby shedding tears represent those who are innocent in the world. They are
few and they are scoffed at. They are also infants and are not left to be innocent for long.
Their innocence is “blasted”  by the cry of the perverted.  

. Who does the speaker blame for the pain and strife he hears and sees
on London’s streets?
Ans. The speaker points to two different causes for the grief and strife he
witnesses: the Church (line ten) and Royalty (line twelve).

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Q. What is ironic about the poem’s final image of “the Marriage

hearse”?
Ans. The image combines the beauty of love (Marriage) with the sorrow
and destruction of death (hearse). The irony lies in that marriage marks the
beginning of life together, while a hearse marks the end.
Q. What does the repetition of words throughout the poem do to its
message?
Ans. The repetition that prevails in the poem emphasizes the horrors and
evils the speaker observes by making them seem abundantly common.

Q. After reading this poem, how would you describe the speaker’s
attitude toward London?
Ans. The speaker presents nothing positive about London. In lines three
and four, for instance, he reports that in every face he sees only “Marks of
weakness, marks of woe.”

Q. What does  William Blake  describe in the poem London?

Ans. “London” is one of the best-known poems of a Revolutionary English
poet William Blake. The poem describes a journey through the streets of
London in which he portrays the negative aspects of that city. In the poem,
the city is presented as a pained, oppressive and deprived city. In the city,
all that the speaker finds is deprivation and misery. The poem also talks
about child labour and slavery. The poem describes the gloomy experiences
of the poet during his life in London.

Q. What does the poet see in the chartered streets of London?

Ans. The poet is surprised to see the poor young girls sell their chastity to
earn their daily bread and butter in his midnight wanderings through the
chartered streets of London. In this way, they are harlots and live a
wretched life. And they dislike children, and they dislike love. They don’t
want to see them born to them.

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Q. What is the theme of London by William Blake?

Ans. The major theme of the poem “London” is that the city is a gloomy
and unhappy place. Things such as “hapless,” “weakness,” “woe” and
“manacles” add to this grim context. Also words such as “the blackening
church” and “thro’ midnight streets” very clearly represent darkness.
Q. What did William Blake think of London?
Ans. The poem London shows the true feelings of William Blake regarding
the world in which he lived. This is all universal and eternal because every
society has limits this imposes on human life. The speaker makes it very
clear that he thinks that the government has too much power and that
society is too rigid.

Q. What is the tone of the poem?

Ans. “London” is a poem by British writer William Blake written in 1794. The
poem has a bleak, tragic tone and reflects Blake’s frustration and
unhappiness with his life in London. Blake describes the disquieting socio-
economic and moral decline in London and the increasing sense of
hopelessness inhabitants.

Q. Describe the phrase Marriage hearse used in the final stanza of the
poem.
Ans. In the final stanza, the phrase “Marriage hearse” is a kind of oxymoron
or joining of contrasts. The concept behind this term that a baby is born to
a mother who is a prostitute and she curses her newborn infant … So even
birth in “London” carries with it the taint of death.

Q. Why does William Blake use repetition in London?

Ans. Blake uses repetition in London to reinforces his belief that everything
is held by the dominant class and that nothing is free of charge. The
same constraint occurs in the language itself. The thudding repeat of Blake
reflects the city’s choquant atmosphere.

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Q. What type of poem is London?

Ans. The poem “London” is composed of four stanzas each consisting of
four verses. The lines are written in iambic tetrameter and rhymed ABAB.
This means that we may describe the poem as being comprised of four
open iambic tetrameter quatrains.
Q. What is the imagery of the poem London?
Ans. Blake’s London is a dark and sombre place. The descriptions establish
an image of a dreary city filled with death. Around every corner, the
narrator hears screaming, and phrases like “curse,” “plagues” and “hearse”
conjure up images of death.

Q. What are the mind-forged manacles?

Ans. The poetic phrase “mind-forged manacles” means anything that
restricts us, that inhibits us from moving, that keeps us restrained or the
limitations that we set on yourselves in terms of dreams and goals. We do
all this because of our mindset or fear. We impose these things in our own
minds. In fact, forging is simply the heating and hammering method of
metals in order to weld them together. If the manacles are “mind-forg’d”, it
means that we make them ourselves.

Q. What does Chartered mean in London?

Ans. The “chartered streets” refers to the commercial management
structure, or charters, that existed in the city. The same framework also
applies to nature: “the Thames chartered.” Blake claims that only the
ancient, unburdened river is handled for profit.

Q. How does the poet attack three institutions in the poem London
explain?
Ans. The poet exposes that in the society a young girl was engaged in
prostitution who was yet a youth. Overall, the poet has criticized modern
society by condemning the church, government, and prevalent dark
practices and values that created an unseen veil of misery and suffering in
the minds of all.