Appreciation for London by William Blake

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Gemma Dormer

Appreciation for London by William Blake

The first stanza of the poem London opens with the image of Blake as he wanders “thro' each charter'd street”.  Blake selected the word “charter'd” to convey various images in the readers mind.  The immediate image the audience will visualize is that the streets of London were mapped out.  However, on further examination the reader can determine that Blake had another meaning for the word.  The word charter is also a document bestowing certain rights on a town or city.  A perspective that the reader could adopt is the word is suggesting a proud independence of a city.

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Repetition is one of the most significant features that Blake uses in the poem.  Blake’s repetition is domineering, this is used too emphasise the aims and images that Blake is trying to express to his audience.  

        Blake repeats the word “mark” twice in the second stanza to express different meanings to the audience.  The first “mark” is a simple meaning of to notice.  However “marks of weakens, marks of woe” are physical signs of the suffering that Blake can see in London.  There is also another connotation to the use of “marks” that the reader may miss upon the first reading.  Once ...

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