London - William Blake

LONDON CONTEXT

• London was published as part of the Experience section of William Blake's best-known work.
• This poem was written during the Industrial Revolution, and he saw the economic, social and environmental changes as a threat to humankind. For Blake, the factories of the Industrial Revolution represented a form of physical and mental enslavement - the 'mind forg'd manacles'
• Blake was a deeply religious man, but he was highly critical of the Church of England, and of organized religion more generally. He was born into a family of English Protestants who broke away and rebelled against the Church of England

FORM

• London has 4 quatrain stanzas. The first one deals with the sights of London, whereas, the other three focus of the sounds of London
• In Stanza 3, Blake uses an inventive form to create an acrostic. Here, Blake takes the last word of Stanza 2. Which is 'HEAR'. Then, the first letter of every line in Stanza 3 spells out HEAR. This is used to help the poem emphasise the sense of sound that the speaker experiences in London. This feature is not noticable. Implying that to truly understand the pain and impoverishment of London (and cities like it) takes a deliberate effort.

METER

• On first glance, London is written in Iambic Tetrameter. Indeed, the first three lines conform to this rhyme scheme perfectly. However, it is thrown off on Line 4.

RHYME

• London follows a regualar ABAB rhyme scheme

SETTING

• As the title of the poem suggests, the setting here is London. Specifically - London in the 18th Centrury
• This is significant as it was around the time of the Industrial Revolution. Whihc is also a time of Rapid Industrialisation, therefore changing the character of the city, making it a hard place to survive.
• The young ('chimney-sweepers'), Men ('solider') and women ('youthful Harlots') all have to put their bodies on the line just to exist day by day. This creates a sense that London is an unforgiveable and foreboding place, where threat and danger lurk at every corner.

ANALYSIS

• The word 'charter'd' shows that they are owned and controlled by the wealthy
  
• The repetition of 'marks' demonstrates that this is a permenant impact of place's power with wide-reaching and exception-free extent. It also suggests that the impacts of suffering cannot be removed.
• Breaks from the Iambic Pentameter used for most of the remainder of the poem, which could reflect how if people rise up against institutions of power, they can free themselves from societal restraints.
• The phrase 'in Every Infant's cry of fear' incites sympathy for the reader and shows pessimistically how every life is destined for misery.
• The word 'appalls' connotes to dismay and horror and reflects inaction of the church