London” is a poem by William Blake published in 1794 in his work
“Songs of Experience”. The poet, engraver and craftsman was born
in 1757 in London where he spent almost his entire life. He
published his poems engraved in a script embellished with
illustrations.1 Blake was known as a “non-confomirst” which
refers to a religious group that had seperated from the Church
of England and that was critical to the government.2 The poet and
his work are part of the early Romantic period which is
characterized by the rejection of the ideals, values and beliefs
of classicism and neoclassicism such as restraint emotionality
or objectivity. Instead a freer and more subjective expression
of passion, pathos and personal feelings was pursued.
Furthermore, Romantic thoughts proceeded social and political
reactions against oppression and the stereotypes of Christian
thinking.3
The lyrical I in “London” describes his or her impressions and
his individual experience while walking through the streets of
the city of London. The lyric person as a wanderer perceives on
his journey many negative realities. Strong and dramatic
expressions with destructive connotations were used by Blake to
create a melancholic and sorrowful atmosphere of London's
streets (marks of weakness and woe, cry, fear, ban, sigh, blood,
blights and plagues). The capital city and its inhabitants were
found in a terrible condition of child labor, war and
prostitution.
The lyric person refers to himself in the first person singular.
The repetition of the pronoun “I” shows a high degree of
explicit subjectivity which is a criteria of the Romantic
period. The poem's four stanzas, each consisting of four lines,
offer four glimpses into London during the late 18th century.
The poem's structure shows high regularity: the four quatrains,
eight syllables per line, the cross rhyme scheme and the mostly
iambic meter contribute to the poem's coherence.
Blake's poem reflects on the social, political and religious
circumstances during the 18th century. “London” analyzes and
points out cruelty and injustice occurring in the society and
criticizes the church and the British monarchy. It articulates
the social grievances of marginalized people such as prostitutes
and chimney-sweepers who used to be children during that time.
Focusing the socio-historical context, the French Revolution
(1789-1799), the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), and the
Industrial Revolution (late 18th century) were periods and
happenings all of which had changed people's life and society
significantly. London became an emerging and dirty black city.
The process of urbanization took place.
In the first stanza, the use of the word “charter'd” in relation
to the river Thames provides ambiguity since the expression
being “chartered” is not clearly determined. It could either
refer to a written statement describing the particular rights
someone should have given by the state or to the act of leasing
or renting something. In conjunction with the river Thames, the
meaning of “charter'd” alludes to the fact that in the early
years of capitalism everything in the city is owned and
controlled by commercial interests – London's streets and even
the river Thames, an actual natural thing.
The parallelism (the use of parallel clause) in the first three
lines of the second stanza and the repetition of the word
“every” for five times in the stanza underline clearly the fact
that the entire society and each individual person is affected.
In the second stanza, the metaphorical expression “mind-forg'd
manacles I hear” alludes to mental oppression and restraint.
Blake illustrates the idea of a mentally imprisoned society by
using an actual physical object (manacle) within a non-physical,
psychological context (manacles of the mind). Further, a
synaesthetic effect is used as another rhetorical figure to
transform the abstract symbol of the “mind-forg'd manacles” to
an auditive perceivable object – the manacles convert to
something clearly noticeable and can be heard.
The poem's criticism and accusation come to a climax in the
third stanza. The physical descriptions develop to a more social
commentary. The „Chimney sweeper's cry“ complains and accuses
the “black'ning Church” of not fulfilling it's assignment of
protecting the weak. The color black shows a negative and
darkening picture of religion and the church. It could also
refer to the society's abandonment of religion. The “hapless
soldier's sigh” which “runs in blood down palace walls” is
another synaesthesia which converts an auditive stimulus to
something visible, movable and more graspable. The “Soldier's
sigh” refers to the war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and
the colonies in North America and alludes to the violent riots
during the French Revolution. The British soldiers who were
partly pressed into service were returning weak, likely invalid
and not given any support or respect by the state. The “Palace
walls” symbolize the British monarchy for which the soldiers had
to lose their blood. Neither the church nor the government shows
any effort to alleviate the population's distress it has to cope
with. Instead of providing solidarity, empathy or social justice
to the suffering people serving the Empire, morality is ignored.
Harmful consequences as prostitution and child labor can occur.
The initial letters of the third stanza form an acrostic4. By
reading the initials vertically the word H.../E.../A.../R...
appears and emphasizes the stanza's content and which can be
read as a direct order addressed to the reader.
In the fourth stanza a caesura reinforces the poem's content.
The lyrical addresser now points to the consequences which will
affect the society's future. The "youthful harlot's curse"
symbolizes how the youth's sinful failures damage the future
generation, described as the "newborn infant's tear". The next
generation is charged with the correction of the mistakes which
the previous generation has made. Blake creates a paradox by
using a rhetorical figure – the oxymoron "marriage hearse"
confuses eternity and death.
Blake uses in “London” a variety of stylistic devices in
paradigmatic and semantic contexts. Ambiguous utterances invite
the reader to imply extra meaning into the content and open up
the access to interpretation. The rhetorical figures, metaphors,
synesthesia, imagery etc. all of which used, affiliate the
poem's articulation as well as illustrate and enhance it's
implicit statement.
“London” is a prime-example of a Romantic socio-critical poem.
Blake reflects with his work on different levels of meaning in a
subjective and expressional manner. “London” reveals the process
of social change and the related negative consequences in
society. The poem points out lack of freedom and inhumanity
which is neglected by the British Empire and the church in the
late 18th century. “London” shows solidarity with the people who
are hit by the changes the hardest. Furthermore, the poem is a
call for morality, empathy and social justice in order to
protect the future generation.