William Blake - London - Notes and Analysis

By grif, Student

Notes on techniques, meaning, and contextual background of London by Blake.

An essay hosted at LiteratureClassics.com

Poet: .
ñLondonî was written by multi-talented poet, dramatist, artist, engraver, mystic, prophet and publisher William Blake. Often referred to as a social commentator, a large number of BlakeÍs poems focused on similar themes that were relevant to the society in which he was writing. Poems on industrialisation, child labour and the more General notions of man vs nature and the individual against society are not uncommon amongst a collection of his work. Despite being widely regarded as a mad man by his contemporaries, Blake is now celebrated as one of the greatest Lyric poets of all time, and arguably the greatest religious artist to ever come out of Britain. By combining his talents for art and poetry in a single artistic outlet, Blake encourages readers to appreciate his works, both the poetry and its illustrated border, together as one unified piece. BlakeÍs greatest poetic achievements are usually regarded as the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience published in 1789 and 1794 respectively.

Context: .
BlakeÍs work, and more specifically ñLondonî, were the result of the industrialised, oppressive, class based society in which they were written. ñLondonî is a direct commentary on such a society, London itself, commenting on the injustices, filth and hypocrisy that was rife at the time. Being a song of experience and published in 1794, it maintains the somber, dark moods and images that are typical of both the Period and the collection of poems.

Persona: .
Persona is an often overlooked element of poetry. It is the persona adopted by the poet that identifies the action, and interprets for the greatest emotional response, a trade mark of Romantic writers. Amongst the squalor and depression of BlakeÍs ñLondonî, the persona is still free to wonder the chartered streets unlike any other member of society. Whilst everyone else is trapped within a huge net of restrictions, ñchartersî, ñbansî, ñwallsî etc the persona is detached from society and able to justly assess the society as an impartial, removed, party. Which is highlighted in the contrast between the nature of the streets being chartered and undeviating, and the persona who is freely able to wonder them, as if with no purpose at all. There is one theory which explains how this could be possible, but we will get onto that later.

Form and Structure: .
In the tradition of the majority of BlakeÍs poems, ñLondonî is yet another song like, lyrical, work. ñLondonî actually is a particularly good example of the typical song of experience; portraying qualities such as dramatic passion and anger, complex symbols and appealing to experience, a darker knowledge of evil. The poem also maintains the overtones of dramatic monologue in the manner in which the persona speaks aloud, reflecting on the people and places that he sees: ñƒand mark in every face I meet/ marks of weakness, marks of woe.î The poem is clearly divided into four stanzas, but there is a less obvious divider within the poem. Line Eight: ñthe mind-forgÍd manacles I hear.î is the crux of the poem. The previous seven lines are a lead up or foundation for this statement, whilst the following eight are a more specific examination of this principle put into practice. Essentially meaning restrictive ideologies and beliefs, line eight and its comment on society is both literally and dogmatically the centre of the sixteen lined poem.

Aural Imagery: .
Similar to the drudgery of the London of the time, ñLondonî shares a heavy, slow, measured Rhythm. Each line has a pattern of alternating stresses between the average eight syllables to a line. This fluctuating rhythmic feel of the poetry adds intensity to the last word at the end of each line. Meanwhile the Rhyme is a simple AB pattern which, when combined with the eighty beat lyrical rhythm of the poem often reminds the reader of the simple nursery rhymes or songs they may have hear as children. It is then ironic that the ideal, innocent, happiness of the poemÍs presentation meets the nightmarish reality of the poems content. This draws a number of similarities to London of the time. When the poem was published, in 1794, international opinion of London was grand. London was viewed as the height of civilization, when really it was rotting from the inside out. Blake continues to convey this message through a number of aural techniques, or images. The Repetition of ñeveryî in the second Stanza, for example, is a most effective method of really emphasising the fact that all are effected by London society and none are excused. By repeating ñeveryî on every line, bar the last, line eight, concerning ñƒmind forgÍd manaclesƒî, it simultaneously singles that line out as a line of additional importance.

Visual Imagery: .
Blake as an early romantic writer tends to appeal to emotions more than practicality in his poems, consequently, the persona utilised within ñLondonî does so too. He defines citizens by the repression and injustice in their lives, commenting on his ability to find ñmarks of weaknessî and ñmarks of woeî within their faces. Primarily the images within the poem are those of dismay and darkness. Dark and forbidding images like plagues, blood, death, blights, tears, blackening, and a hearse etc. The more significant images are those of the blackening church and blood on palace walls. Whilst both images are dealt with in greater depth within the section on symbolism, these images remain profound but require little explanation as they inspire images that are directly related to information disclosed within the poem.

Symbolism: .
In BlakeÍs work there is often a great gap between the denotations of a word and its understated connotations. This applies not only to the simple symbols within ñLondonî but more accurately to the more complex such as those of the blackening church and the soldierÍs blood running down palace walls. In the case of the blackening church, initially our understanding of the statement ñevery blackening church appalls,î may simply lead us to believe that the church is becoming black as a result of its filthy surroundings but it is also possible to equate the action of becoming black, to the act of becoming evil. As the churches of time were seen as being. Similarly the use of the word ñappallsî can mean to be horrified, as the church would have pretended to have been, but also can mean the act of casting a burial shroud. This is by no means a coincidence. It is far more likely Blake intended to imply the second meaning behind the first as a direct attack on the contemporary church. Because you must understand that the church of the late seventeen hundreds was nothing like the church today. It cooperated with the state to maintain control over the pubic and was widely involved with injustices such as the utilization of child labor, to which Blake was strongly opposed. This attack on the church tied in with BlakeÍs own belief that the churchÍs teachings are ñhypocrisyî and the church itself, ñthe corner stone of tyranny.î

As the poem progresses it seems to become more specific, but the individuals mentioned are merely representative of a collective wider group of individuals. The chimney sweeper, the soldier and the harlot are all examples of the oppressed within London at the time. The chimney sweeper represents the vicious use of child labor in general and the vast injustice and abuse they suffered. The soldier whose ñhapless sigh runs in blood down palace wallsî is symbolic of all individuals who have given their life, literally or figuratively to serve the oppressive system. Whilst the harlot is representative of those who suffer as a result of mass capitalism, where money is god, and everything including sexual relationship is commercialised. Similarly by referring to the Thames as being ñcharterÍdî Blake is indicating the conquering of nature for similar pursuits. In referring to ñthe charterÍd Thamesî Blakes is essentially informing the reader that nature, even that of the Thames, has been put aside, or mastered for material ends.

At the start of the fourth and final stanza the persona comments on ñmidnight streetsî. Midnight is often recognised as the hour of greatest darkness, which is also a symbol of ignorance, impurity and death. Apart from this, midnight is often viewed as the hour when all the monsters and apparitions of the dead come out to haunt the living. It is then possible that perhaps the persona is a ghost, free from society, that wonders the streets of London at midnight.

Finally ñMind forgÍd manaclesî lie at the heart of the poem. As mentioned earlier these represents the restraints placed on the individual as a member of a repressive society.

Range Of Meanings: .
ñLondonî by William Blake has a wide variety of implications and meanings. It could be argued that ñLondonî represents the defloration of people living in London; or the rottenness and result of the industrial revolution; servility that humans punish themselves with or even perhaps the defilement of all that is pure and free. It is more likely a mixture of all the above, representing the social, moral and ethical regression that results of the development of industrial, capital and material manacles of the human mind.

Overall Impact: .
Overall ñLondonî is a very pessimistic poem that expresses no solutions to the issues mentioned within each line. The continual bombardment of horrific thoughts, ideas, and the even more frightful reality of late seventeenth century London makes for a disturbingly dark poem. By its conclusion, this nightmarish impression of darkness is heavily imbued within the thoughts of the reader. Perhaps just as William Blake would have intended, to truly convey the horror and injustice that was London.