General Summary:

• The speaker takes a walk through the designated streets of London. This walk brings the speaker near the River Thames, which seems to have its course dictated for it as it flows throughout the city. The speaker sees signs of resignation and sadness in the faces of every person the speaker passes by.
  The speaker hears this pain too, in the cries men as well as those of fearful newborn babies. In fact, in every voice in the city, in every law or restriction London places on its population, the speaker can sense people's feelings of being oppressed by city life.
  The speaker hears the cry of young chimney-sweeps, whose misery brings shame on the Church authorities. Thinking of unfortunate British soldiers dying in vain, the speaker imagines their blood running down the walls of a palace.
  Most of all, the speaker hears the midnight cries of young prostitutes, who swear and curse at their situation. In turn, this miserable sound brings misery to their tearful new-born children. The speaker also imagines this sound plaguing what the speaker calls "the Marriage hearse"—a surreal imagined vehicle that carries love and death together.

Themes:

• Corruption

• Poverty

• The industrial revolution

The double meaning of charter’d:

• To map out something

• A document was drawn up by people in power with what citizens can or can't do

The mark → Physical sickness or emotions through eyes.

Capitalisation of Man, Infant, Soldiers → Refers to every man, every child, every soldier

Repetition of every → a sense that it's everywhere. The discrimination, sadness and poverty are overwhelming and crowd the poet, similar to poverty-stricken areas in London

• Anaphora: The first line is repeated in other first lines

Babies/ infants: Symbolize that babies are being born into poverty, with no way of escaping and making a better life for themselves

Ban:

• Religious, economic and political restriction

  • The poor could not vote

  • Could not change financial status

The chimney sweeper: These children were often orphans left under the care of the church.

Youthful Harlots curse → reveals the hard-heartedness of the young mother and therefore the hard-heartedness of society

Acrostic:

• HEAR (3rd Paragraph/stanza) → Imagery of sound, Don't turn a deaf ear, Seeing the horror and hearing it.

Oxymoron:

Marriage Hearse- Wedding (Happy beginnings) and a funeral