William Blake, "London," from Songs of Innocence and Ezperience, 1794. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
London is a poem by William Blake, originally published in Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1794.
London[]
London - William Blake
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.
How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every black'ning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.
But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
About[]
"London" is among the few poems in Songs of Experience which does not have a corresponding poem in Songs of Innocence.
Analysis[]
London by William Blake Analysis ( 5 min.)
Analysis of 'London' by William Blake (15 min.)
As with most of Blake's poetry, there are several critical interpretations of London. The most common interpretation, favored by critics such as Camille Paglia[1] and E.P. Thompson, holds that London is primarily a social protest. A less frequently held view is that of Harold Bloom; that London primarily is Blake's response to the tradition of Biblical prophecy.
The use of the word 'Chartered' is ambiguous. It may express the political and economic control that Blake considered London to be enduring at the time of his writing. Blake's friend Thomas Paine had criticised the granting of Royal Charters to control trade as a form of class oppression.[2] However, 'chartered' could also mean 'freighted', and may refer to the busy or overburdened streets and river, or to the licenced trade carried on within them.[3]
In Thompson's view, Blake was an unorthodox Christian of the dissenting tradition, who felt that the state was abandoning those in need. He was heavily influenced by mystical groups.[4] The poem reflects Blake's extreme disillusionment with the suffering he saw in London.[5]
The reference to a harlot blighting the 'marriage hearse' with 'plague' is usually understood to refer to the spread of venereal disease in the city, passed by a prostitute to a man and thence his bride, so that marriage can become a sentence of death.[6]
Recognition[]
American poet Allen Ginsberg set the poem to music, on his 1969 recording of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience.[7]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ Paglia, Camille. Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-three of the World's Best Poems. Vintage. ISBN 0375725393.
- ↑ Stephen Bygrave (ed), Romantic Writings, Routledge, 1996, p.20; The Invisible Worm," Tom Paulin, The Guardian, March 3, 2007.
- ↑ E.P. Thompson, Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law, Cambridge University Press, 1993, p.176
- ↑ BBC: Blake's 'London'
- ↑ Edexcel GCE English Language and Language and Literature Poetry Anthology Teachers' Guidance, pg 4.
- ↑ Bygrave, p. 20
- ↑ Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake, tuned by Allen Ginsberg, Penn Sound. Web, May 20, 2019.
External links[]
- Audio / video
- "London" at YouTube
- William Blake's London by Lethargica. The Internet Archive. Retrieved 07/05/2008
- About
- "A Short Analysis of William Blake's 'London'" at Interesting Literature
- "London" at SparkNotes
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