A Symbolic Analysis of William Blake's "London".

The first 200 words of this essay...

A Symbolic Analysis of William Blake's "London"

.........In his reflection "London," William Blake laments the poverty faced by the lower class of modern, industrialized London, and he can find no note of consolation or hope for their future. The poet uses this theme to dramatically depict the conditions in which the oppressed lower class is forced to live; he develops the theme through the use of sounds, symbolism, and an ironic twist of words in the last line that expresses Blake's ultimate belief in the hopelessness of the situation. The poem is dominated by a rigid iambic meter that mirrors the rigidity and immutability of the lives of the poor and the oppressive class system.

.........The first stanza begins with the poet describing himself walking through the "charter'd" streets of the city near the "charter'd" Thames-every aspect of the city has been sanctioned and organized by the ruling class-seeing expressions of weakness and woe on the faces of all the people he meets. The streets and the river make up a network that has been laid out and chartered by the wealthy class to control the poor. The poet walks among the poor, participating in the drudgery of