The effect that all of this has on the reader is that they feel as though Blake thought that there was no-where in London that was worthwhile visiting, showing how negative his feelings were towards the city.
The word “charter’d” is repeated, this is done to remind the reader of the commercial nature of the city in the way that everything is owned. This is also emphasised on the next line of the stanza when Blake says, “where the charter’d Thames does flow”. This is implying that even the river is owned. The river can be interpreted as a symbol-life. Following a path set out for us, but only he finds depression along his way, again, showing the reader that he has lost a certain amount of faith in the city.
In the same stanza he says “And mark in every face I meet”, by this he means that he is able to see the depression in the city, caused by poverty, greed among other things, all of which are effecting the rich and the poor. He repeats the word “mark” to reinforce the point that everywhere he is looking he can see symbolic “marks”. The use of the term “mark” also has another meaning, one of impurity, sins and scars, (which can be linked with comments later on in the poem). In this Blake may be using his technique of language to tell how, in his opinion, everybody in London is to blame for the condition, which it is was in.
He comes from a lower middle class background; the son of a hosier and the tone of this poem expresses his awareness of the poverty around him "marks of weakness, marks of woes.
By using repetition in the first stanza, Blake makes the reader feel that as he walks “thro’ each charter’d street” he is viewing images that sicken him.
In the second stanza, Blake is reminding the reader how the depression is affecting “every man”. Again he uses the technique of repletion to emphasise the word “every” reinforcing the idea of collectiveness and blame for the whole city. This reminds the reader that nobody is able to escape the conditions of the depression.
In this stanza Blake talks about “ever Infant’s cry of fear”. This is suggesting that the children are afraid of what they have been born into, and fearing that there is no hope whatsoever for the future. Blake goes on to talk about this when he says that they have an almost certain chance of becoming chimney sweeps or prostitutes, before the age of twelve. By describing it like this Blake succeeds in shocking and depressing the reader. It is here too that he plays on the concept of childhood innocence. By mentioning the children here he evokes the concept of innocence but it is ironic that this poem contains no innocence of it’s own, at all. This suggests to the reader how truly desperate the children are,
Blake suggests and blames the citizens of London for the state that it is in. He describes, “mind forg’d manacles”. This means that the only thing that is preventing the people from living happy lives is their negative and depressive ways of thinking.
In the third stanza, Blake makes reference to the “Chimney-sweeper’s cry”. At the time he wrote this poem, young children, especially young boys, were sent up chimneys to clean them. Many got trapped and died there. By reminding the reader of these conditions he makes the reader realise how horrific these events were. In this he tries to emphasise what a terrible place London was.
Blake links the sweepers to the church when he says “Every black’ning Church apalls.” He is saying that the church is tainting themselves by not defending the chimney-sweepers. By involving the church in this whole affair Blake brings to sight how deep this chain of corruption went with regards to authority. The coupling of the words “church” and “apalls” also has a similar effect, as they are two contrasting words. Blake simply means that the church is no full filling its role to comfort the needy and is instead turning a blind eye on the suffering. Blake believes that the church was part of the reason London was in such a state.
