In his poem, “London,” British poet William Blake describes the appalling conditions of London and its people. Innocence has also been a major theme that is throughout many of Blake’s poem, including “London.” William Blake uses metaphors and imagery to show the themes of disappointment and ruined innocence throughout his poem “London.” In the first stanza of “London,” Blake describes himself walking through specific streets of London, yet he is only describing the terrible and melancholy things he sees. Blake specifically chose to not include anything cheerful he might see in the streets of London. He is obviously displeased with what he sees, and those outweigh anything good he might see if he truly walked through “each chartered …show more content…
Also, the mind, these chains are not real, they are of the mind, imaginary.
One possible interpretation of these “mind-forged manacles” is Blake’s merging of what is real and what is fiction, which could explain the “marks of weakness, marks of woe.” Or, it could be interpreted as there was so much pain and sorrow Blake saw as he walked through the streets of London, that the chains created in his mind, and the other people, was the intangible correction of these problems. Another reason to believe the idea of restraint and intangibility is the use of the word “ban” in the line before, simply another restriction given to the people, whether that was a literal “ban” by the government or a restraint of the mind.
The third stanza first mentions “the chimney-sweeper’s cry” (Blake 9). There is another poem by William Blake that specifically goes into a chimney sweeper’s job, but chimney sweepers are normally young boys who clean people’s chimneys. The working conditions are quite terrible, and they often sleep in the soot that they clean, it is just a very dirty and dreadful situation.
“Every blackening church appalls,” (Blake 10) could relate back to the chimney sweeper’s and the black soot, and also Blake’s disappointment of the church. The chimney sweepers are young, orphaned, boys and the church’s duty is to help the orphans, according to the Bible. Blake may be expressing his disappointment of the church not helping
“The Chimney Sweeper” (128): This version of the Chimney Sweeper is very upfront and saddening. The version that is presented in the songs of innocence is much more of a calm town and is not as straightforward, while this version is very short and to the point. In this version its very deep as the narrator basically just calls out the parents/church for doing these horrible things to the children. I really love all three stanzas of this poem because they all have a really deep meaning and Blake transitions through them very well. Reading this poem over and over I don’t know what to make of it other than it is an absolute horrible situation. I think it can be tied in to
In Blake's poem he says that as he passes through London he sees a "mark in every
The narrator speaks of what could symbolise the lower or working class "the Chimney-sweeper", crying out against the system, and the upper class "Church" subduing them. Both the chimney and church are personified to symbolise the people they represent. This dominance is also related in the personification of "Soldier" and "Palace". The soldiers fight the wars that the monarchy decides, their blood on the King and Queen's hands. They sigh as to their shared plight, but their sighs only end in their deaths. This stanza's rhythm is different in that it follows a heptameter meter. Its pace is faster, which might reflect an increase in excitement by the narrator in what might be anger.
London (1794) is one of the most instantly available and comprehensible of the Songs of Experience. The poem, in fact, does not require an interpreter since the images are clear and no knowledge of Blake's personal vision is necessary to understand it. Every reader can see London as Blake’s own city, as an image of the English state and its society and as an image of human condition. A close reading may confirm what a reader had already experienced. Blake, in fact, uses his poetry as a means of social criticism. In this poem, that is practically his everyday experience of life in London, gives him a clear insight into the misery and injustices suffered by London residents. “Blake’s London is the legitimate inheritor of the Augustan tradition”, “the vision of the walker in the city who records and organizes London”2. This London is, however, a city of
Then in further thought the coffins, which is relation to the theme of death and how the youthful chimney sweepers are trapped in cases before they are released as Blake cleverly writes “an Angel who had a bright key, And he opened the coffins & set them all free” (13-14). The angel sets them free and they can finally get free and cleanse their souls, at least that is what Blake is going for when he writes “And wash in a river and shine in the Sun. Then naked & white, all their bags left behind, They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind. ”(16-18) These lines contain two metaphors which are that they are cleansing their
Blake's genius is evident throughout the poem where his changing meter directly correlates to the point he is making at the moment. The meter is changed in the last line of the first stanza from iambic tetrameter to anapestic dimeter possibly to stress the section (Damon, 1965) The third stanza is anaspectic for the first foot but then reverts to iambic for the last two feet of the line. The speaker begins here by condemning main foundations like the Church and the military capitalizing both words. ?The Chimney - sweepers cry? is basically an exposure to the child labor prevalent during this era. Once again he uses a child to symbolize an innocent victim terrorized by higher authority. Also, these cries are accusations against the Church. Blake uses the phrase ?blackening Church? to expose the Church?s function as a tyrant rather than a source of enlightenment (Lambert Jr., 1995) This line illustrates the Church both blackened by soot and the exploited people who are forced to clean it. At this point it is clear to the reader that Blake?s representation of the church is ironically evil. It forces oppression on the people of the society. He
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.
“Then down a green plain a leaping and laughing, they run, And wash in the river and shine in the sun. Then naked and white all their bags left behind, They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;” When Blake wrote these lines he was of course referring to the act of Baptism. Which is defined in the Bible as being a water ritual, used as a spiritual symbol. Through this process the sweeps would be washed clean of all of their sins and also be cleansed of all of the bad things in their lives including their jobs. “And the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy, He’d have God for his father, and never want joy.” This line of the poem indicates that if Tom was a good child and did as he was told on Earth that he would not be forsaken by God as his parents had forsaken him in his former life, but instead he would have everything he could ever possibly desire and be completely content in his afterlife. “And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark, And got with our bags and our brushes to work. Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm; So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.” Through these words Blake reveals hope rather than despair because the focus is on immortality instead of life as a sweep. “The little Sweep's dream has the spiritual touch peculiar to Blake's hand.... (Gilchrist).” As stated before Blake is trying to convey
Blake uses the five senses to help the reader picture how filthy London is in his poem.
The Chimney Sweeper reflects the hope that God can give to people even when they are miserable and hopeless. The kid in the poem is sold at a very young age and he is devastated with the things he is forced to do, but his perspective changes once he sees his future.
William Blake’s poem, “The Chimney Sweeper” is a poem about children losing their innocence and being forced to clean chimneys. The setting is in the industrial period when children in orphanages being sent to work at such a young age. The young boys were usually the ones to be put to work because they were small enough to get into the chimneys and clean them. Children in this era eventually were diagnosed with Black Lung Disease because they inhaled too much soot in their lungs.
Comparing the Poets' Use of Language To Present Their View of London in Composed Upon Westminster Bridge by Wordsworth and London by Blake
In both of William Blake’s poems, “The Little Black Boy” and “The Chimney Sweeper,” an innocent-eye point of view portrays the stresses of society in an alternative way to an adult’s understanding. The innocent perspective redirects focus onto what society has become and how lacking each narrator is in the eyes of the predominant white culture. Each naïve speaker also creates an alternate scenario that presents a vision of what their skewed version of life should be like, showing how much their unfortunate youth alters their reality. From the viewpoint of children, Blake’s poems highlight the unhealthy thoughts or conditions in their lives and how unfortunate they were to be the wrong race or class level. These narrators were cheap laborers and were in no control of how society degraded them. Such usage of a child’s perspective offers important insight into the lives of these poor children and raises awareness for the horrible conditions children faced in the London labor force prior to any labor laws. The children of the time had no voice or platform on which to express their opinions on their conditions. Blake targets society’s lack of mindfulness towards the children using the innocent-eye point of view and illusions of what they dream for in life.
A nineteenth century emphasis on the fleeting and the ephemeral makes a strong presence in the poem. Wordsworth places emphasis on the “now” in the verse “this City now…” referring to the early morning hours alone. The poet takes pleasure in watching London during sunrise; however, this does not imply that he will feel the same way at a different hour-during “midnight”, for example, which is the time of day that Blake describes in “London”. Just as a fancy garment is worn to be later removed, so is the city’s serene beauty at dawn only transient. Blake appears to be objective in his depictions of the city whereas Wordsworth’s perceptions are more personal as he takes on the role of a tourist. He does not acknowledge the city streets or its locals but rather focuses on observing its architecture at a specific time of day. The poet writes with exaggerated sentiments and his piece maintains a romantic quality to it; at times it almost seems as if he is describing a paradise instead of a bustling metropolis. In the opening lines of the poem he exuberantly exclaims, “Earth has not anything to show more fair”. He calls out with religious ardor, “Dear God!” as he stands in complete awe before the capital, the “mighty heart” of the world. In addition, Wordsworth declares that “Dull would he be of soul who could pass by/ A sight so touching in its majesty” in view of the breathtaking city. However, Blake’s Londoners do not seem to share the same enthusiasm of their city and appear
In the poem “Holy Thursday”- songs of experience and in the poem “The Chimney Sweeper”, William Blake makes use of various literary techniques to portray the theme of cruelty towards children. The poem ‘Holy Thursday’ refers to the wretched condition of children in charity schools. The poem ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ refers to the poor children who were used as slaves in England. My aim for this essay is to explore how William Blake made use of various literary techniques to portray the theme of cruelty towards children in the two poems.