How Does William Blake convey his anger in the poem ' London'

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 How Does William Blake convey his anger in the poem ' London' ?  

The poem 'London' by William Blake, relfects his feelings upon the society that he was living in , and how despreratly it needed help. Blake thought that all of the poverty and misfortune that was happening on the streets were caused by the political opression in London. Blake was angered by what he saw in his homeland as other countries started fighting for their indipendence and equality whilst his country stayed dormant, eventhough he felt that there was a serious need for serious action.

Eventhough Blake wasn't a typical romantic writer, he too possesed the same beliefs of fighting for what one believes in, and the urge to be liberated from the opression of society. So, by being a writer of the romantic period, watching a controlled and restricted society not showing an intent to break free and fight against the monarchy, angered him and inspired him to convey his ideas and feelings throuh the poem 'London'.

In the poem, Blake travels through London and descibes what he sees. And as a result, he sees a severly opressed society that is caused by the authority, such as royalty and the church. This is as Blake sees that even the 'streets' and the 'thames' are 'chartered' and governed by the authorities. This is furthur emphasised by his repitition of the word 'chartered' which then gives the reader an image of the lack of freedom that the people in London posses as the 'streets' is a metahor for the general public while the 'thames' represents their freedom, this is as rivers are normally associated with free will while the 'streets' are gernerally associated with the lower class in society. So, by describing the streets and the thames as being 'chartered', Blake is then able to create an image in the readers mind of the public being severly opressed by figures of authority. Another image that the writer creates, of an opressed scoiety, is the metaphor 'mind for'ged manacles', this is as the 'manacles' are only 'forged' by the 'mind' thus, it not being real so therefore anyone can break free from it anytime, but yet they chose to stay in self-imprisonment. The line 'mind for'ged manacles' also conveys Blake's anger towards the ignorance of the people in country as he believed that they could break free from their imaginary prison cells, and fight the authorities that were causing their poverty, just like in the French Revolution.

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One way that Blake uses to convey his anger on what he sees is through his constant repition on certain words. In the first stanza,he repeats the word 'charter'd' twice. By repeating the word 'charter'd twice', it places furthur emphasis on the 'streets' and 'thames' being restricted by authority. The word 'mark' is then also repeated three times in the poem, by doing so, Blake is able to let the reader take more awearness of the word 'mark' and the story it is associated with, which is the mark of Caine.

Caine was given a black mark ...

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