London by William Blake is a poem characterised by its dark and overbearing tone. It is a glimpse at a period of England 's history (particularly London) during war and poverty, experienced by the narrator as he walks through the streets. Using personification it draws a great human aspect to its representation of thoughts and beliefs of the narrator.
The author uses a rhyme scheme that mirrors the pace of walking. The pace is moderate using an octameter meter, and each stressed syllable is like each footfall of the narrator. As he walks through the streets near the near the River Thames, he notices the common distress in the faces of the people he passes along the way. The author uses alliteration in line four, "marks", "weakness" and "woe". It draws emphasis on the feeling of severity and the widespread effect on these people.
The narrator starts to envision that the people around him are all chained in "manacles". They are enslaved by the country and disastrous world they live in. Their fears, curses ("ban") and cries of their current state are shared. The word "mind-forg 'd" gives one the feeling that these people 's minds have formed these shackles ' that inhibit them. The author states this by starting lines five to seven with "In every", and repeating the word "every". He emphasises the fact that every man, woman and child is affected by this shared state. Personification in the words "Man" and "Infant" draws importance to the general race/gender meaning of the words, further strengthening this universal aspect of his idea.
The third stanza expands on the idea of this shared mental slavery '. The narrator speaks of what could symbolise the lower or working class ("the Chimney-sweeper"), crying out against the system, and the upper class ("Church") subduing them. Both the chimney and church are personified to symbolise the people they represent. This dominance is also related in the personification of "Soldier" and "Palace". The soldiers fight the wars that the monarchy decides, their blood on the King and Queen 's hands. They sigh as to their shared plight, but their sighs only end in their deaths. This stanza 's rhythm is different in that it follows a heptameter meter. Its pace is faster, which might reflect an increase in excitement by the narrator in what might be anger.
In the last stanza, the narrator witnesses the young "Harlot" (prostitute) cursing and reprimanding ("Blasts") the infant 's cries and "tears" at what could be the result of being fatherless. The soldiers ' deaths leaving mothers widowed, turning the joyful occasion of marriage (also personified) into a depressing event ("the Marriage hearse). This stanza has a very different rhyme structure to the previous ones. It is half octameter and heptameter, making it slightly off beat. Lines thirteen and sixteen are slower (octameter), while lines thirteen and sixteen (heptameter) have a rapid, excited tone.
Although written long ago, before the twentieth century, London echoes a theme recurrent in present history. Poverty is still shared by many third world nations, while all through the twentieth century men went to war only to leave widows and fatherless children.
REFERENCES:
Blake, William. 1794. London. In Songs of Experience. Pp 216.
References: Blake, William. 1794. London. In Songs of Experience. Pp 216.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Thus William Blake gives a very tragic and moving view of London and its inhabitancies.The bleakness and the dreary world of London is portrayed here. Indeed (The concept of universal human suffering permeates through Blake's dolorous poem "London," which depicts a city of causalities fallen to their own psychological and ideological demoralization,)which depicts a city of the picture of the exploitation and vulnerability of innocence . Innocence is devastated again and again. It is as if that England has stagnated morally and this moral degradation clearly expresses itself in the form of physically impaired children. Though the poem is set in the London of Blake's time, his use of symbolic characters throughout the piece and anaphoric use…
- 269 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
1. The voice of whom is depicted in the poem is that of a Negro slave from Africa, we can see this from line 2, stanza 1 which reads “Afric’s coast I left forlorn” the significance of this choice of narrator is that it allows for a first-hand account of the emotion and experiences of a slave, this engages the reader on a more personal level and encourages them to think from different perspectives about slavery and adopt a more sympathetic view of the slave, which in turn would lay the seeds of uncertainty within the morals and beliefs of individuals. 2. The personification which is present in stanza 3 line 20 which reads “Sweat of ours must dress the soil.” This can be used in the speakers argument against slavery as it creates an image of the…
- 888 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
On November 28, 1757, one of the most eminent poets from the Romantic period was born. William Blake, the son of a successful London hosier, only briefly attended school since most of the education he received was from his mother. He was a very religious man and almost all of his poems enclose some reference to God. “Night” by William Blake is part of a larger compilation of poems called Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. This collection of poems, published in 1789, depicts innocence and experience. “Night” dramatizes the conflict between heaven and earth.…
- 472 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Personification is used by a lot of authors to make the reader understand and feel like they are in the story and can relate to the characters they are reading about. The term “personification” puts to life a word by giving that word personal/humanistic qualities. In line 6, the speaker uses personification when referencing the sounds he heard while awakening- "I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking." Another example of personification in the poem is shown in line 9 where the speaker gives emotion to the house- "fearing the chronic angers of that house", we all know that a house is an inanimate object, but the speaker mentions it being mad. Using personification also helps the speaker emphasize how old and beat up the house is. The most interesting personifying in…
- 656 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The author Andrew Lang wrote this poem in vocabulary of the late medieval ballade. This explains the rhythm in each line for example “money taketh town and wall, fort and ramp without a blow, money moves the merchants all, while the tides shall ebb and flow. So each line has a rhythm flowing through the poem.…
- 458 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Throughout the entire Night novel we see the main character, Eliezer, struggle with many issues (some internal, some external). Undoubtedly, one prominent issue was Elie’s belief and devotion to God. From start to finish of the book, Elie’s faith changes drastically. Eliezer goes from a young boy that is completely in awe of and committed to his religion, to a young man that is unsure of his standing with God. Before the Holocaust, Eliezer would fill his days with religious studies, and even went so far to ask his father for a personal teacher of Kabbalah. Once when Moishe asked Eliezer why he prays, Elie replied: “Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?”(4). It was as if Elie could not even fathom not praying; To him, praying was part of his daily ritual. The first time Elie ever questioned God or his power was when the Jews arrived at camp and were ordered to march to the crematorium. Steps away from a fiery death, Eliezer’s father began to desperately pray in the Lord’s name and Elie felt nothing but resentment. Elie wondered why his father would pray to God when he was the one who was allowing their death, “For the first time, I felt anger rising in me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?”(33). Every new horrible and atrocious event in Night demolishes Eliezer’s belief in God more and more. Elie…
- 584 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Night is the narration of an experience filled with darkness, sadness, silence and at times also death. on the second section of this novel (page 21-24), a dark and angry pictures of human nature emerged . The Jews was deported to the concentration camps riding in a cattle wagon, treated like caged animals. They are tormented by nearly unbearable conditions. There is almost no food to it, no air to breathe, the heat is intense, there is no room to sit and everybody is hungry and thirsty. During the journey, Madame Schachter, a woman of about fifty, had gone out of her mind. The separation and the oppressive treatment had completely broken her.by the third night of their trip, while everyone is asleep, she cried, “Fire! I can see a fire! I can see a fire!” Her screams became sickening in the ears of the other deportees and made them fear of the worst. Some tried to calm Madame Schachter and the others tied her up, gagged her and beat her into silence. This novel demonstrates that cruelty breeds cruelty. Instead of comforting each other in times of difficulty, the Jews respond to their circumstances by turning against one another. Madame Schechter’s fellow Jews lose all their good morals and social affection. Instead of stopping those who are doing the beating to the poor woman, they vocally support them." Make her be quiet! She’s mad! Shut her up! She’s not the only one. She can keep her mouth shut ... “. Even the mothers like Madame Schachter cooperated and encouraged others in torturing her in front of her ten year old son. One of the circumstances that allow for this darker side of human nature to emerge is because of the oppressive treatment by the German officers and the Hungarian police. The Jews were threatened by the words of the German officer, “If anyone is missing, you'll all be shot, like dogs ...". The Jews have been influenced by their oppressors and so they tried to be eminent among others including Madame Schachter. By treating the Jews less than…
- 527 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The writer also hints that he is not right in the brain: mind-forg'd manacles I hear'. He is imprisoning himself with handcuffs. The writer focuses more on imagery in the third stanza. I believe that the Chimney-sweeper's cry' represents mankind itself trying to sweep' the despair and corruption in their society. However, it could also suggest how in London children worked as chimney-sweepers, and he is appalled at how his culture would allow this, as they get paid very little money and many of them die of lung diseases at a very young age. Black'ning Church' is also ambiguous it could suggest impurity, lack of faith in society and how things that once seemed safe and reassuring are now dangerous. This is because the Church is not speaking out for how society is being ruined, thus it becomes corrupted itself. However, it could also suggest the pollution at the time and how the church walls were stained with soot. Hapless soldier's sigh' suggests how many men were left with no choice but to become soldiers in the army and fight in the war, hence they become…
- 495 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
* Line 4 refers to poetry as "prancing," which cleverly plays upon the terms commonly used to talk about poetic meter, like "metrical foot" – for more on this concept, check out the "Form and Meter" section.…
- 665 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
There is a sour mood and tone cast throughout the poem, the time at which this poem was written further verifies the author’s background in writing such a poem. There is a dialect that is supposed to simulate the voices and speaking mannerisms of the mother and child, further adding to the story’s imagery. Alliteration is sparse in the poem, for example in the second line in the second to last stanza:…
- 413 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
I wander through each chartered street, Near where the chartered Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of man, In every infant’s cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forged manacles I hear. How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry Every black’ning Church appalls; And the hapless Soldier’s sigh Runs in blood down the Palace walls. But most through midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlot’s curse Blasts the new-born infant’s tear, And blights with plague the Marriage hearse. When the poem reads, “Runs in blood down Palace walls” and “Blasts the new-born infant’s tear”, there is a central conflict between life and death and innocence and experience. Life is created with the new-born baby, and as Blake views is born innocent. The blood running down the palace walls is a symbol of death, and how along with death comes experience in knowing the cruelties and the truths of the world. William Blake became a major pioneer for writing in his time, because he chose to make his own mythology and not conform to what the world wanted him to be, which “kept him more simply a poet than…
- 1566 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
The poet used irony and savage criticism of the pretension about the church’s holiness and false religiousness (Emdad). Blake uses irony to convey that the church holds itself to a high moral standard and perceives itself as glorified while at the same time the church’s ignorance and self-interest lead to the death of the chimney sweepers. There is evidence for this in the implied metaphoric reference to the deadly medical conditions when the poem states “they clothed me in the clothes of death” (Blake 7). This metaphoric line in this poem is a reference to the dangerous conditions that led chimney sweepers to experience deadly diseases, deformities and sometimes death. Most of the chimney sweepers were from very poor families whose parents left them to work for wealthy families and survive off of their owner's mercy. The chimney sweepers wore no clothing while working in the chimneys, subjecting them to abrasion and causing soot to become embedded in the skin (“Percivall Pott”). As bathing was infrequent for society in general, the chimney sweepers were rarely clean; The London's St Bartholomew's Hospital which claimed children only washed themselves once every five or six years (“Percivall Pott”). On top of this, the chimney sweepers were…
- 1119 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Imagery, and Meaning of London by William Blake Name DeVry University LTRE 427: Studies in Poetry July 27, 2014 Words are able to give a poem much more meaning and imagery if used in the correct context. The use of denotation and connotation help poets achieve how its audience perceives a poem. Both tools build imagery; it can give much more meaning to the words and create more than just a poem. In few to little words, a larger story can be told. Denotation and Connotation…
- 491 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
People are shown as being so obsessed with fitting in the unfeeling social mainstream that they have become afraid of change. The poem points out that people have become less dignified because they no longer openly express their feelings and attitudes, but the man appears as a savior, having the courage to openly weep at all the ills and worries of modern day life. Les Murray has used him to symbolize redemption, and the man is portrayed as a messiah through the description- "Only the smallest children and such as look out of Paradise come near him and sit at his feet, with dogs and dusty pigeons", presenting him as being innocent, pure and genuine. The…
- 383 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
In The Chimney Sweeper from songs of experience written by William Blake is about a child who is forced to work as a chimney sweeper by his parents who are gone to pray at a nearby church. Blake does a good job expressing his feelings through the speakers and the way he uses his rhyme schemes. This poem is quite different because it contains two speakers. Many may read this and think this is a simple poem of a working child. However, that is not the message that Blake is trying to deliver, the message is much deeper and is not limited to just a child.…
- 758 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays