‘LONDON’ BY WILLIAM BLAKE

‘LONDON’ BY WILLIAM BLAKE

 

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William Blake’s (1757-1827) poem ‘London’ is a part of his most significant work - Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794). This small but important poem is a comment of the poet on the oppressed, painful, and poverty-ridden life of Londoners at a time when the Industrial Revolution was being hailed as a panacea for all the economic and societal challenges. The poem brings the readers face to face with the underside of all the pomp and polish that the city of London stood for. The poem brings to the fore all that was wrong with the city, in particular and with the society, in general – dirt, filth, child labor, prostitution, oppression, misery.

London was an important commercial center as well as metropolis at the time. Blake looks at the flip side of this prosperity. The speaker of the poem takes a tour of the city at night and lays bare the tyranny, oppression, desperation, dejection that the underdogs were faced with.

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.

The speaker is wandering through the streets of London at night. The very streets seem to be controlled by state statutes. Not just the streets, but even the Thames also seems to have been controlled according to the will of the state. This is something extraordinary since it is almost impossible to control a river. But the idea conveyed here is that everything is under the tight control of the law of the state and freedom is only a meaningless word.

The last two lines of the quatrain have a pun on the word ‘mark’ where the speaker says that as he walks down, he observes many people and notice that their faces have ‘marks’ of ‘weakness and woe’. Their lives are miserable and that misery is evident on their faces.

This quatrain sets the mood and tone of the poem. It is not going to be about the glamour of this metropolis. There is a not-so-glorious but real and shocking side to the city that must be brought to light.

   In every cry of every Man,

   In every Infants cry of fear,

   In every voice: in every ban,

  The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

  The tone gets intense in this quatrain. The speaker is deeply aggrieved at human misery and predicament. He listens to the sounds of the city which are far from being pleasant and reassuring. There are cries all around. Even infants are crying and their cries are the cries of pain, suffering, and fear. The cries of pain bring to his mind ‘the mind forged manacles’. These manacles of handcuffs are the obstacles that have been created to hinder the habit of free thinking and critical analysis. These are mental blocks that have obstructed the growth of free thinking for so long that it has stopped coming by naturally to people. 

  How the Chimney-sweepers cry

  Every blackning Church appalls, 

  And the hapless Soldiers sigh

  Runs in blood down Palace walls 

   Continuing with the sounds of London, the speaker notices that the chimney sweepers’ cries are putting the Church to shame. The chimney sweepers were usually destitute children who were taken care of by the Church. The Church has failed its duty and has engaged the children in the dangerous and inhuman practice of cleaning chimneys. The Church is blackening because it is a party to the dark and ugly practice of chimney sweeping. And not just the Church, the whole society has failed these children.

   Society has failed the soldiers also whose sighs are flowing (figuratively) like blood from the palace walls. Soldiers are fighting ‘wasteful wars’, battles that end up taking their lives. All this for the palace, for the rulers. Their sighs go unheard. Their sighs reflect in the blood that they are sacrificing for the palace i.e. for the royal supremacy.

  But most thro' midnight streets I hear

  How the youthful Harlots curse

  Blasts the new-born Infants tear 

  And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse. 

   But the most agonizing and excruciating sound is the sound of young prostitute who curses the whole society for her agony and torment. The infant who cries seems to be the strumpet’s child. The very fact that there is prostitution is a reminder that the institution of marriage is diseased, and has lost its sanctity. The metaphor of hearse brings the image of the institution of marriage being dead, all plagued and diseased because of prostitution.

   ANALYSIS

   The oppression of the underprivileged is the main theme, the main focus of the writer. The industrial Revolution had changed the basic fabric of society and was taking its toll on the lives of impoverished masses. Capitalist owners of the means of production emerged as the new feudal lords. Royalty was as indifferent as ever. The worst hit were women, children, and soldiers. The poem reveals their anguish. The use of the word ‘chartered’ in the first stanza indicates that all the laws were inconsiderate of the plight of the poor and helpless. Even geographical features like the Thames is brought under control. No one is happy here. All the faces that he meets have marks of misery and distress.

   The repetition of ‘every’ in the second stanza emphasizes the all-pervasiveness of this torment.

  The very minds of people are controlled and freedom is a sham. The society, religion, development – everything is to be held accountable for the anguish of the masses. For survival, young children have to sweep chimneys, a job that had serious repercussions on the health of the kids and they died untimely. Chimneys, again, hint towards the rapid urbanization and industrialization which is the root of this evil. Urban setting and misery are suggested to be inversely proportional. Technologically, we have progressed, but as humanity we have failed our duties.

   Similarly, strumpets are leaving their infants behind since they have to earn their living. Their curse is bighting the ‘marriage hearse’. This phrase ‘marriage hearse’ is paradoxical as marriages are for happiness and hearse is associated with death and gloom. By putting them together the poet is indicating towards the meaninglessness or death of the sacred institution of marriage.

   Underneath all the prosperity and charm of a metropolis like London, there lies a plethora of diseases of a moral nature. The royalty, the aristocracy, the Church, the lawmakers, the law enforcers – nobody seems to even acknowledge the existence of these unfortunate sections.

  The soldier, the harlot and the chimney sweeper – all want to survive. Ironically, all three have to put their bodies at stake in order to survive.

   Defilement of childhood and Death are other themes of importance that the poet talks about. Except the first stanza, there has been a mention of children, particularly infants, in the poem. Infants open their eyes in this world of mechanized humanity. Economic prosperity and greed have blinded the society towards the torment of even infants. Their cries are not the innocent cries that we associate with infancy. Their cries are a reminder to the State that things are not right.

   Young children sweep chimneys instead of going to school. It’s not just their health that is risked, it’s the future of humanity that is endangered. Young unmarried harlots are mothers and they curse their infants. A society that cannot take care of its children is doomed.

   The structure of the poem is very simple. The simplicity of structure complements the complexity of images and ideas discussed in the poem. This sixteen line poem has been divided into four quatrains of primarily iambic tetrameter. The third stanza uses trochaic tetrameter. The rhyme scheme is ABAB.

   The first stanza deals with how the city looks. The rest of the poem concerns itself with the sounds of the city at night. The selection of the time of night is significant because during daytime, these sounds must drown in the humdrum of activity. They are most clearly perceptible during night when chimney sweepers and soldiers are nursing their wounds, and when the prostitutes are cursing their babies since it is business time for them.

   The speaker of the poem is not the poet himself though the poem has been written in the first person. The speaker has not been specified but he seems to be someone with whom the poet shares a particular dislike for urbanization and industrialization. The speaker is taking a walk through the streets of London and this walk confirms his ideas about the condition of the less privileged city-dwellers. Interestingly, more than the sights it is the sounds of the city that catch his attention.