New Criticism In William Blake's London

New Criticism is a theory of literary criticism where the only way to interpret the text is to “closely read” and only focus on the text itself. New Criticism is a good type of literary criticism to use for the poem, London. William Blake in his poem “London” uses repetition, rhyming and imagery to portray the horrors that the speaker describes about the city of London, England. William Blake uses repetition throughout the poem in multiple circumstances. The first time he uses repetition is in the first and second lines of the first stanza. Blake repeats the term “charter’d” to describe both the street and the Thames River. Both being described in this way makes the audience have the idea that London is a strict, governed area that may have

One piece of the poem hints towards imagery involving slavery, this occurs when the speaker talks about the “charter’d street….charter’d Thames” and later on mentioning “The mind-forg’d manacles”. The street and Thames being described as charter’d shows the power of the government having the control of parts of the city such as a river and the streets. The use of “the mind-forg’d manacles” is symbolic by showing that their brains or minds are being controlled and limited by the government and is a symbol of enslavement. The poem seems to express a lot of imagery about death and sadness, terms such as cry, curse, plagues and hearse are used. The use of such words tells the reader that the soldiers are being forced by the government to kill. Therefore, causing the soldiers despair. Another portion of the poem uses phrases such as “in very infants cry of fear” and “how the chimney sweepers cry” to show an image of child labor. The term “appalls” is used to describe the “blackning Church” to allow the audience to realize that the church is horrified of the child labor. The chimney sweepers are a specific example of child labor. And the use of the word “blackning” suggests that a sin such as child labor is occurring. Lastly, imagery is used in the last stanza to show the horrifying cycle of living in London, England. “How the youthful Harlots curse, blasts the new-born Infants tear” describes how prostitutes are

William Blake uses repetition, rhyming and imagery in his poem to help promote the idea that London, England is not the city that people dream that it is, the city itself can be a