London
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According to the speaker in the poem, “London”, the streets of London are corrupt and impure, making “London” a sorrowful poem from start to finish. Blake uses specific images to describe the turmoil of disaster brought upon the society of London by its predecessors and “Marks of weakness, marks of woes” in ever direction he turns. The repetition and solid choice of diction clearly represents a society where depression hovers over everyones head. There is precise details of different peoples woes such as cries of “every man,” “every infants cry of fear”, “chimney sweepers cry”, and “the hapless soldiers sigh”. There is a particular image of a landmark, the Thames river, rising in Gloucestershrire and flowing 210 miles past London to the North Sea. Theses recognizable images collaborate into a melancholy of a unrecognizable London realm.
Blake uses specific, tangible images of larger concepts and institutions. Such as the Thames river, which stood as a battleground in the “Battle of the Thames”. Soldiers on the streets of London also serve as a larger image of war. Every “hapless soldiers sigh” represents their unfortunate state of being drafted into war and knowing that soon “the hapless soldiers sign Runs blood down palace walls.” Palace walls represents authority, such as “charted streets”, and the blood which runs down the palace walls represents the corrupted state of authority and law, stained along with the streets of London. There is also siege between the law and citizens of London, making “each chartered street” a necessity. The figure of prostitution comes hand in hand with harlots curse, symbolizing the larger concept of how the youths sins will effect the next generation. There is a figure of anger in line 5, “in every cry of every man” and restriction of speech and free thought in lines 7 and 8, “In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forged manacles I hear.” The “mind-forged manacles are the controlled inhabitants of London who are directed and restrained in their state of mind and public life by outside influences and pervious generations. Blake hears the banned words of the “mind-forged manacles” presenting a view that the speaker is not mentally stable.
Blake uses images of darkness