London - William Blake

Blake’s poem of London clearly illustrates what the atmosphere in London was like in the late 1700s. It describes the surroundings as well as the people who live within the city. The tone of the whole poem is very pessimistic and negative as it focuses on all the bad consequences that came about the way that London was governed.

From the very first stanza, readers get a sense of the controlling environment that London is in by the government. Blake repeats the word ‘charter’d ‘ to remind us that even public property such as the streets and the Thames, is technically owned by someone. Here we see the beginning of the repetition of the word ‘every’. Blake describes how throughout this walk around the city of London, every person’s face has ‘marks of weakness, marks of woe’. It is as if everyone has misery and worries on their face. Perhaps from the fact that they don’t have freedom to do the things that they want to as there are always restrictions. This repetition emphasizes the fact that misery was present in everyone’s faces in London. It is not only affecting the adults in the city but also the ‘Infacts’ through their ‘cry of fear’. Blake cleverly uses the phrase ‘mind-forg’d manacles’ in order to portray an image that the government ‘ban[s]’ are acting as a mental restriction from their own personal freedom and joy.

I found the third stanza very interesting in the way that Blake links places with people in every other line. He begins by describing the cry of ‘Chimney-sweepers’ who are most likely to be children. It is a known fact this is a job not fit for young children, but yet this poem shows that it is a problem that was present during that time. The chimney sweepers are linked to the Church. As Blake describes, the church is blackened and darkened by its hypocrisy. The second link between people and place is made with soldiers and the palace. The soldiers are described as ‘hapless’, which portrays the discomfort they are feeling in their role. They are meant to be protecting the country but yet there is ‘blood [running] down Palace walls’. Both of these places are meant to be places that are clean and pure. They should be places of respect but they are portrayed here as the total opposite.

The last stanza reiterates the feeling of the narrator walking through London streets, similar to the first stanza. However, it reveals the disturbing truth that many are infected with STDs. The word ‘midnight’ tells the readers that even at a time of night when most people are meant to be asleep, ‘Harlots’ are roaming the streets. The hidden message behind this stanza is that husbands are having affairs with these ‘Harlots’ and then they go home to their wives; who in turn gets infected as well. It is like a vicious cycle as ‘Infants’ are born with the disease.

Although this poem may be very negative and miserable when reading, but it gives us insight into what life was really like during a time when London was at a low point. I studied abroad in London my freshman year and I can say that it is completely different now compared to then. London was a very uplifting experience for me and I definitely didn’t see the problems that Blake described in this poem. However, it made me realize how much has changed since the time that the poem was written. When I walked through public places, such as Hyde Park, there was no feeling of being ‘owned’ like described in this poem. There was always a sense of freedom and positivity when walking through the streets of London.