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“I wander through each chartered street”
Blake creates an impression that he is observing life peacefully amidst the bustling city, suggesting that he is aimless or taking his time to think about what he is seeing. Blake is a flaneur here; walking around and observing struggles in society but making no effort to correct them or help the people who are suffering. This could be because he himself is powerless to help similarly to the citizens, or thinks that it isn’t his role to change society (as it is the responsibility of the church or the monarchy), although he is spreading awareness through writing his poem. ‘Chartered’ means privately owned, so the fact that ‘each chartered street’ is controlled by corporate entities suggests that the people are being controlled too. The rich are suggested to be manipulating the lower classes as a means to make profits. Alternatively, ‘chartered’ connotes trade and the flow of people moving along the roads, which is more innocent in meaning, although there is still the aggression of mapping the paths and controlling which route to take.
“And mark in every face I meet/Marks of weakness, marks of woe”
‘Marks’ references the metaphorical scars left by the controlling, oppressive system which makes the Londoners vulnerable, and could also include physical marks left on those unable to protect themselves from disease or poverty, since most of the population struggled to make enough money to survive on so had poor diets which left them susceptible to catching diseases that were aided by poor sanitation across the city. The repetition of ‘marks’ suggests the permanence of their wounds, and the people’s lack of ability to change their ways. Blake invokes a sense of urgency through the enjambment between the lines, although the pace slows as punctuation is used to emphasise how the citizens are suffering and allows the reader to reflect on Blake’s words. The long, heavy ‘w’ sounds of ‘weakness’ and ‘woe’ highlight the suffering that the Londoners are forced to endure, and the alliteration links the two ideas of despair and futility together. There is a semantic field of suffering throughout the poem. Blake writes that ‘every’ face is suffering, implying that all classes are experiencing difficulties which is unusual as most of the upper class wouldn’t find it difficult to survive.
“The mind-forged manacles I hear”
Although the ‘manacles’ Blake mentions restrict and control the population as a result of religious, social, economic and political forms of control, he suggests that some of these limitations come from our own perceptions of the world to create internal prisons. He hints that the previous cycle of suffering the people faced has caused them to be entrapped by psychological walls, implying that the effects of the abuse of power has internalised suffering, as well as it being a physical force. The long vowels in the line also make it difficult to say, reflecting how the people are struggling too.
“How the chimney sweeper’s cry/every black’ning church appals/and the hapless soldier’s sigh”
The ‘chimney sweeper’ symbolises the abuse of innocence as boys were forced by their poverty into the dangerous and exploitative employment of being a chimney sweeper. Their young age is emphasised by ‘cry’ as it has connotations of vulnerability and hopelessness like a child has at the time. This verb is also repeated several other times in the poem and uses sensory language to invoke sympathy in the reader. The dirt and soot accompanied by the job of a chimney sweeper links to the ‘black’ church. The religious institution has been corrupted just as the young children have, but the church made a decision to go down the road of exploitation while the boys were forced into it. Blake takes a tone of condemnation that would typically be used by the church - this subverted use mocks the once-pure religion. Blake is ‘appalled’ by the juxtaposition of the now black church to the goodliness previously associated with it. ‘Appal’ has a double entendre; that the corruption of the church is shocking, or references the cloth placed over coffins, which emphasises that death is surrounding the church. The ‘hapless soldier’ has become hopeless in his situation, despite symbolising protection and security. The hypocrisy of the monarchy is that the soldiers are sacrificing their lives so that the people can have freedom - but this is done in vain as the monarchy do not help the citizens. Blake criticises the monarchy for turning away whenever they are needed to help.
“Blights with plagues the marriage hearse.”
The plosives of ‘blights’ and ‘plagues’ gives it aggression and violence caused by hatred and desperation of no change in society - Blake is frustrated that institutions have become so corrupted. They both connote to the death and suffering that is constantly experienced amongst Londoners, to such an extent that it is even felt during ‘marriage’, a time of joyful and happy celebration. Even this has fallen to the evils of death in ‘hearse’, the car used to transfer coffins. Blake creates a juxtaposed image that marriage and death go hand in hand, and that there doesn’t seem to be a difference between the two anymore. Although life continues, it is constantly ‘plagued’ with illness and death. The end stopped line conveys the finality of death as it is the end of the poem.
Form and structure
There is a set rhyme of ABAB which reflects the rigid social structure of London at the time; everyone was controlled with no way to break free. There is no break in this structure, revealing that society didn’t change or break free from their cycle of misery until later.
Blake uses iambic tetrameter (with 4 iambs) except for a few lines where it is broken. The little metric consistency echoes the speakers’ own shock at the weakness and woe experienced around him in the chaos of the streets. All lines with seven syllables rather than eight mention suffering, emphasising the poet’s frustration and anger at the people’s helplessness and vulnerability.
Blake uses sound imagery to suggest that the circumstances that the people of London find around them is cyclical, and that the evils of London will continue to persist.
Context
Blake was a supporter of the French Revolution at the time that he wrote London as he was anti monarchy and the French people stood up against royalty and their monarchy. He published his poem in 1794, six years into the French Revolution, but once he witnessed the bloodshed and violence in France, his radical hope turned to dissolution.
Blake’s purpose
Blake writes a poem in protest of British society, trying to persuade Londoners to observe that the abuse of power in London (from the church, monarchy and government) is preventing them from having freedom. As a Romantic poet, he criticises the government and the monarchy for controlling its population although Blake himself doesn’t attempt to change society physically as he was a flaneur (observer of problems)
Themes
Citizens’ lack of power
Abuse of power
Power of institutions
Comparison
Checking Out Me History:
Both poets explore how the abuse of power causes a loss of identity among the people
Similarity: both poets explore the abuse of power by institutions causing powerlessness and a loss in identity
Difference: in Checking Out Me History, hope is regained reflected in the speaker’s own confidence, whereas in London, the people remain powerless while Blake doesn’t experience it himself
