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London
One of the things that makes "London," along with numerous other poems from William Blake, so timeless is that its discussion of human suffering remains as relevant today as it ever was. Blake...
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London
William Blake's "London" presents the eponymous city of London as a dark, hopeless, miserable, and poverty-stricken place. The speaker references children, or "Infants," twice in the poem. He does...
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London
The tone of a poem is the emotion it communicates. The tone of Blake's poem is one of bleak and hopeless sadness at the distress he sees everywhere in London. Blake conveys this sadness at the...
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London
"London", a poem by William Blake, was published in Blake's book Songs of Experience in 1794. It therefore describes the city of London during the late eighteenth century and reflects the changes...
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London
The first stanza already expresses a negative tone, for the speaker notes that as he wanders through the mapped streets of London, he perceives on every face that he meets, 'Marks of weakness,...
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London
William Blake critiques several aspects of his society. Perhaps the best known of his poems concerning child labour is "The Chimney Sweeper", which evokes the cruelty of young children being forced...
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London
William Blake's poem, "London," presents a stark and bleak image of England's capital city. Dark and oppressive, the city is both the stage and the mechanism of indoctrination, crushing the spirit...
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London
William Blake's poem "London" shows how this city, the supposed center of culture, actually embodies the wasted potential of humanity. In the first stanza, the speaker notes that the streets and...
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London
In "London," one of William Blake's "Songs of Experience," the depressing moral flaws of mankind are presented. The persona in the poem notes "marks of weakness" on every face. Given the qualities...
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London
The lines you ask about in Blake's "London" follow: In every cry of every Man, In every Infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban [public pronouncement, announcement of marriage], The...
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London
This poem is one of the "Songs of Experience" written by William Blake that contrasts with his "Songs of Innocence." While Songs of Innocence took an optimistic and positive view of life and...
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London
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. In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of...
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London
I believe that Blake wrote this poem to decry the state of people in the urban centers of his time. He argues, in the poem, that people in the cities are really badly off in a number of ways. In...
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London
William Blake uses dark imagery and discordant diction in "London" to reveal the theme of oppression. The authority figures in the poem, the church, the soldier, the palace, do nothing to ease the...
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London
In Blake's, "London," the speaker uses an adult narrator who is walking through the streets of London, a city that is not only the capitol of England, but the capitol of the British Empire. The...
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London
There are three strong images in "London." All of them are nearly surrealistic, like scenes painted by Salvador Dali. How the Chimney-sweeper's cryEvery black'ning church appals Chimney-sweepers...
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London
In his poem about London, William Blake cries out against privilege, rank, wealth, church and establishment on behalf of the poor, the destitute and the enslaved. I think you are definitely on the...
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London
"London" by William Blake uses regular rhyme and meter. It consists of four open quatrains rhymed ABAB. Each quatrain consists of four lines of iambic tetrameter, meaning that it is composed of...
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London
In my opinion, London in this poem is really just a stand in or a representation for all cities in the world and for all of civilization. The poem is not really one whose ideas are specific to...
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London
To me, this word is used twice in the first two lines to emphasize the theme of the poem. The word itself has a couple of possible meanings: First, I believe the word refers to the idea of...
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London
William Blake wrote in the early years of the Romantic era of British literature. His poem "London" displays at least three of the tenets of Romanticism. First, Romantic literature reflects an...
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London
The first two lines of "London" feature repetition, a literary device Blake uses several times in this poem. The word "charter’d," meaning "mapped," is repeated, showing that the city is mapped out...
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London
There very definitely is imagery in "London" and I will briefly identify some of the most notable features for you. This poem presents us with the poet walking through the London streets near the...
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London
This poem is meant to show how bad life is in London. The lines that you mention help to paint this picture. Harlots are prostitutes -- that is important to understanding these lines. Blake is...
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London
The second stanza actually contains one of the most famous lines of this poem and of Blake's poetry as a whole. Let us remember that the first stanza begins as the speaker is wandering through...
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London
Our first impression of the poem “London” is that it is not “Romantic”—that is, not pastoral, not in tune with Nature, not spiritual. While these terms certainly apply to the Romantic poetry...
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London
This poem is meant to convey how bad it is to live in civilization during Blake's time. He feels that all the institutions of civilization are in some way oppressive or evil. This idea is shown...
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London
Blake is deeply hostile to the Industrial Revolution. He sees it as indicative of an economic system that dehumanizes and degrades people, turning them into nothing more than objects of...
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London
In Blake's, "London," the speaker uses an adult narrator who is walking through the streets of London, a city that is not only the capitol of England, but the capitol of the British Empire. The...
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London
William Blake probably doesn't ever say the word "London" in his poem because he does not need to name the city by name. There is little doubt that the city is London based on the opening stanza....
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London
William Blake, born in 1757, came of age at the outset of the Industrial Revolution (roughly 1760 to 1820), which was marked by an unprecedented population increase, a drop in living conditions for...
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London
William Blake’s “London” is a poem about contemporary life at the time as it is characterized by certain forces that affect social, intellectual and spiritual life. The city, London, is used to...
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London
William Blake's poem "London," like many of his other poems, serves as a critique of the dehumanizing effect of the Industrial Revolution and the "dark Satanic mills" on "England's green &...
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London
In my opinion, you could answer this in two ways. Either the speaker disappears right away, or he never does disappear at all. At least literally, the speaker does not disappear at all in this...
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London
We can easily see that the poem "London" belongs to the Experience side of this incredible collection of poems through its tone and subject. One of the characteristics of the Songs of Experience in...
