“London” William Blake

1. “London” William Blake Mike Munoz

2. William Blake • Born in 1757 • Son of a Hosier (sold gloves, stockings, haberdashery) • Shortly attend conventional school • Later withdrew and was trained in drawing painting and engraving • Saw mystical visions and as a child once “screamed when he saw God put his head to the window“ (Richardson 1).

3. William Blake • Worked as an artist and engraver • Wrote poems inside his illuminated books • Printed illuminated books as Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and For Children: The Gates of Paradise • Died known as a painter and engraver. • Now recognized as one of the great Romantic poet alongside Wordsworth.

4. Historical Context • The poem was written in 1794 • American Revolution ended about a decade before • French Revolution in progress • England increases the control of people with restricting laws and bans • Industrial Revolution booming

5. Themes • Loss of innocence: • Children • Nature • Marriage/love • Corruption of institutions • Government: restricting free thought • Church

6. Explication • “London” Text • 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 every man, • In every infant's cry of fear, • In every voice, in every ban, • The mind-forged manacles I hear. • Explanation • “Charter” Each street Is not owned by the people • Even the harbor • Each face I see is tired and weary • The weariness is seen in every aspect of life. • The peoples minds are being restricted

7. Explication • “London” Text • How the chimney-sweeper's cry • Every blackening church appalls; • And the hapless soldier's sigh • Runs in blood down palace walls. •   But most through midnight streets I hear • How the youthful harlot's curse • Blasts the newborn infant's tear, • And blights with plagues the marriage hearse. • Explanation • Child laborers suffer • The church is becoming corrupt, nature is becoming corrupt • Workers are complaining • Prostitutes solicit the street • “Curse”: STD, bartering between customers • “Marriage Hearse”: sanctity of marriage is dead, STD causes death

8. Literary Terms • 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 every 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 blackening church appalls; • And the hapless soldier's sigh Runs in blood down palace walls. • But most through midnight streets I hear • How the youthful harlot's curse Blasts the newborn infant's tear, • And blights with plagues the marriage hearse. Lyrical Poem ABAB Rhyme scheme Imagery Anaphora Themes: London is being oppressed by multiple institutions, loss of innocence

9. Works Cited • Blake, William. “London.” Songs of Innocence and Experience. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. Print. • Google Images • O'Keeffe, Bernard. "'London' and 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge': Bernard O'Keeffe compares and contextualises Blake's and Wordsworth's poems to illuminate aspects of writing from the Romantic era." The English Review 17.1 (2006): 21+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 May 2013. • Reinhart, Charles. "William Blake." British Romantic Poets, 1789-1832: First Series. Ed. John R. Greenfield. Detroit: Gale Research, 1990. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 93. Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 May 2013. • Richardson, Alan. "William Blake." British Children's Writers, 1800-1880. Ed. Meena Khorana. Detroit: Gale Research, 1996. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 163. Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 May 2013.