Aleena Islam
LONDON – William Blake
Themes
Melancholy, corruption, imprisonment, pollution,
torment
Contextual overview
This poem illustrates the realistic and poverty-stricken aspect
of London by describing how the population is trapped and
depressed. William Blake reflects the unjust society in which he
lived in by taking a pessimistic and hopeless tone throughout
the entirety of the poem. This poem was written in the late
1700s which is known to be one of England’s most restrictive
time periods where people followed a specific societal protocol.
This was also the same time of the industrial revolution which
is what is represented by the amount of corruption that is
depicted in the poem. While William Blake does vividly portray
London as miserable and bleak, he also uses the city as an
embodiment of everything that is wrong and corrupted with all
human beings.
Key features of language, form and structure
- The repetition of ‘charter’d’ highlights the fact that the
people of London have no freedom and are imprisoned
within the city.
- With a parallel structure, Blake suggests that the
population is consumed with misery and melancholy, since
they are struck with sorrow to such an extent that their
emotions become physically evident on their faces: ‘marks
of weakness, marks of woe.’
- Moreover, the harsh repetition and alliteration of
‘marks of weakness, marks of woe’ reinforces how
depressed the people of London are.
- The poet also uses an anaphora to imply that every
single person in London is feeling such anguish and
LONDON – William Blake
Themes
Melancholy, corruption, imprisonment, pollution,
torment
Contextual overview
This poem illustrates the realistic and poverty-stricken aspect
of London by describing how the population is trapped and
depressed. William Blake reflects the unjust society in which he
lived in by taking a pessimistic and hopeless tone throughout
the entirety of the poem. This poem was written in the late
1700s which is known to be one of England’s most restrictive
time periods where people followed a specific societal protocol.
This was also the same time of the industrial revolution which
is what is represented by the amount of corruption that is
depicted in the poem. While William Blake does vividly portray
London as miserable and bleak, he also uses the city as an
embodiment of everything that is wrong and corrupted with all
human beings.
Key features of language, form and structure
- The repetition of ‘charter’d’ highlights the fact that the
people of London have no freedom and are imprisoned
within the city.
- With a parallel structure, Blake suggests that the
population is consumed with misery and melancholy, since
they are struck with sorrow to such an extent that their
emotions become physically evident on their faces: ‘marks
of weakness, marks of woe.’
- Moreover, the harsh repetition and alliteration of
‘marks of weakness, marks of woe’ reinforces how
depressed the people of London are.
- The poet also uses an anaphora to imply that every
single person in London is feeling such anguish and
