blake analysis blake

William Blake was born in Westminster in 1757 and by the age of 14 he worked as an apprentice to an engraver called James Basire. The poem "London" was created during the French Revolution and presented his thoughts on a city called London, a place where Blake lived mostly all his life. Blake never gained the proper recognition for his outstanding work until after his death when he was named a madman. Throughout Blake’s life, he had lived in poverty until later he was buried in an unmarked grave in Bunhill Fields in London. Blake writes this poem in four stanzas, splitting it into sixteen lines that form an AbAb pattern that is analyzed.

At the beginning paragraph, “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”, he starts the poem off with sarcasm as Blake describes the sights he sees while strolling through the streets of London (). Blake repeats the word “charter’d” in the first two lines to symbolize his anger at politics and newly made laws. He insults in the poem to say that it is not only every street they want to take over but even the River Thames which should originally be free for all, but instead they state is as “charter’d”.

The poem targets on the social and political background of London and points out the differences in a simple common man facing the dwelling of poverty verses the high class full of wealth. Blake shares that the humans in London are described as being weak and full of woe, meaning he found expressions of pain and misery on every face that he came across. There is a repetition on the word "marks" which again stresses the sorrow and tiredness that they seem to be going through because of how they are li...

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...urse”, he can hear her curses for what she has to be put through (). Her misery affects the newly born child and he uses strong words like "blasts” that contrast to the tenderness of ones view of the new born.

Blake gives the image that the child will have to suffer just like his mother is doing. He blaming the rich men who might use the duty of a prostitute and then get married and pass on diseases to their partners. The word "plagues" is used to symbolize the lives of the rich and how their actions affect the life of all the innocent people involved. No matter how harsh this poem is in its message, it has relevance in modern times where the poverty is discrepancies in incomes whether you are rich or poor.

Works Cited

Darr, Shaheen. "Poetry Analysis of "London" a Poem by William Blake (1757 - 1827)." Yahoo Contributor Network, 29 July 2009. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.