London By William Blake Summary

Firstly, the speaker’s attitude or the tone demonstrates how a person can be the cause of their own misery. From the very start of the poem the speaker has a depressing tone. Any little event that occurs the speaker reads it as a negative occurrence that adds to his ever growing misery. For Example, when the speaker says “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” The speaker hears a knock on the door and opens it to see that there is no one there. Instead of going back to sleep he demonstrates his negative attitude by

One way that Blake uses to convey his anger on what he sees is through

One of two ways that the author’s use of dashes and unusual capitalization are used to contribute to my understanding of the theme of darkness in the poem is by having a dash after the word “dark” in the very first line of the poem it draws attention to the word, this is shown in the following excerpt “We grow accustomed to the Dark --” this is strengthened when in the second line, when the author chose to capitalize the word “when” before the phrase “…light is put away--” therefore, strengthening the theme of darkness. Another way that the author’s use of dashes and unusual capitalization are used to contribute to my understanding of the theme of darkness in the poem is by capitalizing the words “a” and “moment” they caused a sense of hesitation,

Before watching your presentation, I only knew the basics regarding William Blake. There are various interesting things that you mentioned that I did not know about. For example, you mentioned how he was more commonly known for his art rather than his poems. His art as a whole is really interesting. You mentioned how he took his encounters with the people around him, his brother’s death, and visions and reflected them into his work. One thing from that list that stood out to me the most were his visions. He was able to take his visions and portray them in his paintings even when many people found it difficult to understand the meanings behind it.

In the first part of the poem the writer shows the difficulty he is having with taking a human life. In the second stanza he says “Making night work for us the starlight scope bringing men into killing range. This dark tone helps to emphasize the struggle the author is feeling as a soldier in war. Also he shows his emotions directly. In stanza 3 he says “The river under Vi Bridge takes the heart away”. This quote shows the feeling that the author gets

The topic of death is either suppressed or masked in both poems. Both poems are very strong and powerful pieces, which allows readers to connect to the issues being told. Throughout “London”, Blake not only implies the difficult times that London went through during the Industrial revolution, but also how many died during this

The speaker refers to the night as his acquaintance. This implies that the speaker has a lot of experience with the night, but has not become friends with it. Thus, because even the night, which has been alongside the speaker in comparison to anything or anyone else, is not a companion to the speaker, the idea of loneliness is enhanced. In addition, “rain” (2) is used to symbolize the speaker’s feelings of gloom and grief, because there is continuous pouring of the rain, which is unlikely to stop. In line 3, “city light” is used to convey the emotional distance between the speaker and society. Although the speaker has walked extensively, he has not yet interacted with anyone – thus distancing himself even further from society. Moreover, the moon, in lines 11 to 12, is used as a metaphor of the speaker’s feelings. The speaker feels extremely distant from society that he feels “unearthly.” The idea of isolation and loneliness in this poem is used as the theme of the poem; and the use of the setting and metaphors underscores the idea that the speaker feels abandoned from society.

These different views portray the idle ad infertile state of human society. Stanza I begin with the description of a cold winter evening and the routine scenario such as ‘burnt-out ends of smoky days’ (line 4), ‘the grimy scrapes’ (line 6), ‘withered leaves’ (line 7), ‘newspapers from vacant lots’ (line 8), through a third person omniscient point of view. All these description of the day and the street tells of something that is dark, uncheerful and even still. These lines suggest the mundane scenario of a society that has lost all its charms and liveliness. Then the point of view shifts to the second person ‘You’. The third stanza gives a picture of a person who waits for someone else to come to a lonely bed with hopes of something unreal. This has the suggestions to human lives where people wait for things to become better and in the hope lose grip of their own lives. The lines 33-34, “you have such a vision of the street as the street hardly understands” gives the reader the picture that the person on the bed dreamt of the street of the street as it actually never will be, implying to hopes the human, as an individual, has of how the society should be. Not cold, distorted and dead but lively, closely knit and warm with emotions. It indirectly shows of how distorted human society had become as an effect of the damage humans inflict on each other thus making the society a waste land. The

In "London", William Blake brings to light a city overrun by poverty and hardship. Blake discards the common, glorifying view of London and replaces it with his idea of truth. London is nothing more but a city strapped by harsh economic times where Royalty and other venues of power have allowed morality and goodness to deteriorate so that suffering and poverty are all that exist. It is with the use of three distinct metaphors; "mind-forg'd manacles", "blackning Church", and "Marriage hearse", that Blake conveys the idea of a city that suffers from physical and psychological imprisonment, social oppression, and an unraveling moral society.

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 authors of London (1794) and London, (1802), William Blake and William Wordsworth, were both writing about London during a time of tremendous growth. The industrial revolution drove thousand’s of people to the city looking for work. Over crowded and disease ridden, citizens were appalled at the changing condition of London. David Hume a Scottish philosopher during this time described London as, “Both sexes meet in an easy and sociable manner; and the temper of men, as well as their behavior, refine aplace”. While people were flocking to the city to seek work, London’s government was taking defense measures in order to insure security against France. William Blake, author

and that he believes them. The poem also translates into how living in the city is toilsome and that the city is unrelenting. On the other hand it shows how the city can be prosperous and happy with the city’s disadvantages. in the second half of the poem it’s telling how nomatter what is wrong with the city, the people are still proud of who they are.

William Blake’s poem “London” takes a complex look at life in London, England during the late seventeen hundreds into the early eighteen hundreds as he lived and experienced it. Blake’s use of ambiguous and double meaning words makes this poem both complex and interesting. Through the following explication I will unravel these complexities to show how this is an interesting poem.

The two authors have very different ways of expressing their own views on London. While Blake may use crude language to describe his experience, Wordsworth makes the city appear so pleasant and warm. When Wordsworth writes about London, he describes it as a beautiful, charming place that is clear and peaceful; Like when he writes “All bright and glittering in the smokeless air” (8) he describes the air as a bright place that isn’t polluted with the factories and mess. Unlike Wordsworth, Blake describes London as a dark dirty place filled with desperation and fear. For example, when Blake writes “In every cry of every man” (5) he tells the reader about the people of London who are crying for help in the painful, tear-jerking city of London; due to the fact that this was written in a time of the industrial revolution when children were forced into labor, and families were torn apart with work and couldn’t provide. The world in which Blake was experiencing was a sad and desperate time, unlike Wordsworth. Despite the constant contrast of language and descriptives, they are both still talking about the same city.

A Comparison Between William Wordsworth's Upon Westminster Bridge and William Blake's London The English Romantic period spanned between 1789 and 1824. This period was not so-called until the mid 19th century when readers began to see six different poets as part of the same movement. These poets were William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Shelly and John Keats.