Blake's 'London' is one of the most famous poems in his 'Songs of Experience'. He was extremely intimate with the city, living there for the majority of his life. He therefore witnessed first-hand the suffering and unhappiness that is related in the poem, lamenting its fall from the "green and pleasant land" [Jerusalem] that is celebrated in the accompanying 'Songs of Innocence'.
Controlled Repetition
The poem is organised into four quatrains, each with the unfaltering rhyming scheme of ABAB. This structural repetition is mirrored in the language, a dominant feature that creates a sense of urgency. In the first stanza, both the streets and the Thames are described as "charter'd", implying that they are controlled by the state. The fact that the river, which is of course flee-flowing, is described as thus is a hyperbolic technique that reflects the poet's strong disdain for institutional dominance. The word "mark" is then used as both a verb and a noun, carrying a sense of permanence that alternatives such as 'speck' do not. Furthermore, an alliterative 'w' is used twice in "weakness" and "woe", creating a sound that deflates the sentence and mixes pathos into the poetic rage.
The repetition carries through to the second stanza, as the poet employs anaphora in the first three lines with the phrase, "In every". The use of the word "every" again contributes to the poem's overall sense of urgency, giving the impression that the issues were more widespread than they perhaps were in reality. Blake also uses aural imagery to stretch the impact of the poem on the reader's senses, as he hears "every cry... In every voice". This serves to humanise the people who he is trying to generate sympathy for.
"Mind-forg'd manacles"
Subsequently comes an important image that encapsulates one of Blake's key authorial messages, namely that practically all human suffering is created from within. Everything that is criticised elsewhere in his poetry, such as the Church and the government, are ultimately human conceptions, and he suggests that humanity is therefore personally responsible for the damaging effects that they have had, as well as for their alleviation. The "manacles" are therefore "mind-forg'd" because they have been formed in the human brain. This is not to say that Blake does not sympathise with the masses: indeed, one could see the aim of his poetry as edifying, as he attempts to enlighten his readership.
The People of London
The final two stanzas concentrate on various different groups of citizens that populated London in Blake's life. First, he mentions the "Chimney-sweepers", a heavily oppressed group of children who were forced into manual labour at an overwhelming risk of ill health, and whose "cry" is evoked elsewhere in the 'Songs'. The Church is then described as "black'ning", an epithet that suggests both literal pollution and figurative degradation, an injustice that "appalls" Blake who encourages the reader to empathise through such emotive language. Moreover, he produces a surreal image of a soldier's sigh that "runs in blood down down Palace walls", suggesting the government are directly responsible for his death. There is something horribly ironic about the fact that the monarchy sit within the palace while such atrocities are occuring outside.
Blake concludes this provocative poem by describing what "most thro' midnight streets I hear", namely "How the youthful Harlot's curse/ Blasts the new-born Infants tear/ And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse". This is a complicated image that uses the extended metaphor of a sexually transmitted disease to suggest how contemporary injustices are passed through the generations. Indeed, the corruption of children is arguably the most prominent theme in the 'Songs', as the qualifying first line of this stanza would suggest. The final line could be an attack on the institution of marriage (although Blake was married himself), suggesting that formal unions can perversely destroy love rather than preserving it.
A Powerful Vilification
'London' is therefore an extremely angry poem that encloses many of Blake's grievances, blaming institutions, and ultimately humanity itself, for the suffering that England's capital is riddled with.
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