London

Portrait of William Blake
William Blake 1757–1827

I wander thro' each charter'd street. Near where the charter'd Thames does flow A mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

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

How the Chimney-sweepers cry Every blackening Church appalls. And the hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls

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

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  1. Asma Canada

    in the poem, staza 1, "charter'd" means "not free to people". "marks of weekness and marks of woe" manes marks of misery on the face of people." "mind-forg'd manacles" means that people hands are in chains, that man's lack of freedom. "every black'ning church appals" appals = goes pale and they mean by this that the church which is supposed to help the poor, it is black with smoke. "and the haplass(unfortunate)…

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    in the poem, staza 1, "charter'd" means "not free to people". "marks of weekness and marks of woe" manes marks of misery on the face of people."

    "mind-forg'd manacles" means that people hands are in chains, that man's lack of freedom.

    "every black'ning church appals" appals = goes pale and they mean by this that the church which is supposed to help the poor, it is black with smoke.

    "and the haplass(unfortunate) soldier sigh, Runs blood down palace walls." this means that in war, unhappiness of a soldier led to bloodshed.

    "youthfull harlot's curse" is sexually transmitted diseases spread to others.

    "plagues" in the last line means sexually transmitted disease

    Hope this helps with any work!!!

  2. Reader United Kingdom ↩ replying to Asma

    To clarify Asma's comment: "mind-forg'd manacles" does not mean people's hands are chained it refers to the mental or "mind forg'd" way in which the people are bound - they lack a real feeling of freedom and are trapped by their poverty etc in their lives in London. "charter'd" also does not mean "not free to the people". It means literally that the streets are mapped out - like charted ("charter'd"), and this…

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    To clarify Asma's comment: "mind-forg'd manacles" does not mean people's hands are chained it refers to the mental or "mind forg'd" way in which the people are bound - they lack a real feeling of freedom and are trapped by their poverty etc in their lives in London.

    "charter'd" also does not mean "not free to the people". It means literally that the streets are mapped out - like charted ("charter'd"), and this implies again a lack of freedom for the people as the streets are so coordinated, planned out and regemented. They have no control over them.

    "black'ning church" means that the church buildings are becoming black from smoke and fumes and implies figuratively that the church itself has become tarnished and corrupted by the surrounding city and people.

    the bit about the soldier's blood means that the soldier simply dies because he is unlucky (his death is therefore implied to be pointless), but his blood is "metaphorically) on the palace walls because it was there the decision was made to send him to war in the first place (the monarchs still had this influence, back in the day).
    Also look out for repetition in the poem of all the constricting or negative words
    the harlot bit is a sort of train of thought - the harlot (prostitute) has passed her "curse" - STD (possibly syphillis which was rampant at the time) - to a husband, who then passes it to his wife and in the process means she gives birth to an infected child - therefore thee harlot's "curse" affects the newborn child.
    Hope this is helpful! :)

  3. Ami

    Thanks, thats realy helpful Just to further the point about "chartered" reinforcing uniformity and regimentation...you could maybe say that "chartered Thames" is an oxymoron the free-flowing nature of the river restrained and controlled. I dunno...just a thought... Also, we tend to focus on the language of poems alot when their form and structure are equally important. Notice in 'London', Blake employs a simple…

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    Thanks, thats realy helpful
    Just to further the point about "chartered" reinforcing uniformity and regimentation...you could maybe say that "chartered Thames" is an oxymoron
    the free-flowing nature of the river restrained and controlled. I dunno...just a thought...

    Also, we tend to focus on the language of poems alot when their form and structure are equally important.
    Notice in 'London', Blake employs a simple rhythm, each stanza with equal lines and syllables...what is this all meaning? Perhaps it is to reinforce the state of oppression and uniformity that London is in.
    Or maybeee, Blake is attempting the distill London's corruption to a simple essence. This poem is not based on a particular city but acts as a paradigm...it expresses a timeless truth in which the situation in London is universally applicable.

    Or, gosh the mind is thinking now, maybe London is a state of mind. This "mind-forged manacles" business is people either having control of your mind or the mind creating these thoughts...that was poorly worded but what i mean to say is that the corruption in 'London' may be mirroring the corruption of the human mind.

    But above all..."marriage hearse" WHAT an oxymoron :)

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