William Blake's 'London' is a criticism of the society in which he lived and the institutions such as the church which he disagreed with.

William Blake- ‘London’

William Blake’s ‘London’ is a criticism of the society in which he lived and the institutions such as the church which he disagreed with. Blake talks of London in the world of experience, where innocence has been corrupted by the richer upper class and the lower classes have been exploited.

In the first stanza Blake talks of ‘charter’d’ streets the ‘charter’d’ Thames which symbolise the control of the ruling classes over the poor as Blake walks amongst them, feeling their woe as they struggle to survive. This suggests a huge divide between the classes and the exploitation of the poor by the rich, the poor being ‘marked by weakness’ even though they are in the majority, ‘every face’. This could suggest the fear of a working class uprising in the mould of the French revolution and the oppression of the working classes by the church, the monarchy and the aristocratic government which denied them a voice.

In the second stanza Blake talks of ‘the mind-forg’d manacles’ which suggest that everyone he sees is ‘chained’ to the rigid class system that dominated the society at the time. ‘In every ban’ suggests the greedy nature of the ruling classes who have taken measures to prevent the redistribution of wealth in order to retain their power in society. This could also be seen as a criticism of the industrial revolution as there was more money than ever, however a minority of aristocrats controlled the majority of wealth and merely exploited the lower classes to gain more money.

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The third stanza is a criticism of the church’s failure to protect the most vulnerable part of the society: the young. Blake speaks of ‘the Chimney-sweeper’s cry’ and the ‘black’ning church’, suggesting that the chimney sweepers are blackened by the church in soot, which oppresses them and denies them of their youth by making them experienced, the church spurns the chimney sweepers pleas and ‘appalls’ in doing so. Blake couples the church with the ruling upper classes by condemning the inadequacy and oppression. The ‘hapless soldier’s sigh’ suggests a lack of military authority, he is merely a pauper, whereas he should be a symbol of authority and strength, this could predict a possible revolution caused by the oppression of the lower class.

The final stanza suggests the bleak nature of even love amongst the poor, the unusual paradox of ‘blights with plagues the Marriage hearse’ suggest that marriage is turned in death through sexually transmitted disease whereas sex and marriage is traditionally associated with birth. The ‘youthful Harlot’ suggests desperation and waste and again exploitation. Blake describes the struggle to survive, the idea that the ‘newborn infant’s ear’ being ‘blasted’ suggests cruelty, neglect and a rejection of natural maternal instincts that the ‘Harlot’ has.

The poem’s rigid iambic metre could be seen to reflect the severity and rigidity of the class system at the time in London and the rhythm of the poem could be seen to mirror the deliberate and ‘chartered’ way that even Blake walks, everything is regulated and strictly controlled by the ruling classes. Blake uses harsh cacophonic sounds suggest spite and hatred for the class system which Blake strongly disagrees with, for example, ‘black’ning church appals.’ Also short monosyllabic words convey the same message for example ‘runs in blood down palace walls’. Blake ends many of the lines of this poems in words which have connotations of woe and give the poem a ‘gloomy’ tone such as ‘appalls’, ‘cry’ and ‘curse’. The rhyme scheme further reflects the rigid status of the classes, it follows a highly structured ABAB scheme which suggest simplicity and repetition in conveying the message that there is little hope for the future.