London = Poverty & Inequality
- Created by: JasmineP46
- Created on: 20-02-21 17:36
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- London = Poverty & inequality
- Language
- "hapless Soldier's sigh"
- "ban" - connotations of military summons
- Whimper of suffering caused by British expansion in India
- Impressment
- "Charter'd streets"
- 1792 = British East India Company renewed their charter to control British-held territory in India
- "youthful harlots curse ... marriage hearse" - idea of STDs being prevalent - free love idea - marriage as restrictive and unnatural.
- Destruction and poverty
- Structure
- X4 Quatrains
- Tight form evokes inescapability
- ABAB rhyme scheme. All is cohesive and united on the surface
- First-person perspective. Autobiographical?
- X4 Quatrains
- Interpretations
- British imperialism = 'charter'd streets'
- British East India Company charter to renew influence in India
- "in every voice, in every ban"
- "hapless Soldier's sigh / Runs in blood down Palace walls"
- Blake = anti-imperialist
- Possible allusion to Thomas Paine's 'Rights of Man', which argued in favour of the principles of the French Revolution
- The establishment
- Criticism of authoritative state and a stringent society
- Possibility of divine retribution (pestilence and "blights with plagues") at the end?
- Criticism of humanity constantly trying to innovate. We have become detached from nature.
- British imperialism = 'charter'd streets'
- Thematic link
- Inequality within Britain
- Also can be seen in other Blake poems in 'Songs of Experience'
- Inequality of the British Empire, especially in India
- Inequality within Britain
- Language
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