Lecture on 'London' by William Blake

Introduction

• William Blake (1757-1827)
• Early Romantic poet
• Emphasis on emotion and imagination over reason and logic
• Reverence for nature, innocence of childhood, and outcasts
• Blake's radical views: social equality, critique of church hypocrisy

'London' Overview

• Part of Blake's collection: Songs of Innocence and Experience
  • Songs of Innocence (1789): Positive themes - nature, childhood innocence
  • Songs of Experience (1793): Negative themes - corruption of innocence
• 'London' from Songs of Experience

Themes in 'London'

• Inescapable misery and poverty
• Critique of powerful institutions (church, monarchy)
• Speaker likely represents Blake or a ghostly figure

Form and Structure

• Iambic tetrameter
  • Rhythm: unstressed-stressed (da-DUM)
  • Four feet per line (e.g. "I wander through each chartered street")
  • Reflects themes of entrapment and constraint
• Alternating rhyme scheme: ABAB throughout the poem

Analysis of Stanzas

Stanza 1

• Verb "wander": Aimlessness, powerlessness
• "Chartered": Repeated to emphasize constraint and restriction
• Control over nature: Thames River also "chartered"
• Double meaning of "mark": Notice and being affected
• Marks of weakness and woe: Literal and scar connotations
• Trochaic substitution: Emphasis on "marks" in "Marks of weakness, marks of woe"

Stanza 2

• Repetition: Every cry, every man, every infant’s cry, every voice
• Ban: Double meaning - rule and curse
• Mind-forged manacles: Handcuffs as man-made constraints
• Alliteration: "Mind-forged manacles" - harsh tone

Stanza 3

• Child labor: Chimney sweepers
• Blackening church: Pollution and corruption
• Hapless soldier: Blood running down palace walls
  • Comments on government control and violence
  • Reference to French Revolution
• Those in power protected: Discontent and blood imagery

Stanza 4

• Emphasis on personal responsibility: Midnight streets reveal individual negligence
• Youthful harlot's curse: Impact on newborns and marriages
• Harsh consonants: Reflect distress and disease
• Marriage hearse: Link between marriage and death - societal corruption

Conclusion

• Corruption at both societal and individual levels
• Reflection of Romantic concerns about nature, innocence, and societal structures