London by William Blake

London by William Blake is a powerful and disturbing portrayal of the harsh realities of life in 18th-century London. The speaker walks through the streets of London and observes the poverty of the people and the social injustices that oppress them.

This study guide is written for students and teachers of English Literature, particularly those studying AQA’s GCSE English Literature Power and Conflict Anthology and Pearson Edexcel’s Time and Place Anthology. For more study guides from this anthology, check out the Power and Conflict page, or the list of poems in the series at the bottom of this guide.

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 Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry
Every blackning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot’s curse
Blasts the new-born Infant’s tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

What is 'London' all about?

Summary of stanza 1

The speaker walks through the streets of London, observing the faces of the people around him. These faces are marked by “weakness” and “woe,” suggesting a sense of suffering and hardship.

Summary of stanza 2

In the second stanza, the speaker listens to the cries of different groups in London, including men, infants, and even those facing some kind of restriction or punishment (‘bans’). He interprets these cries as a sign of ‘mind-forged manacles’, meaning that the speaker believes these people feel trapped and limited, not just physically but also mentally, by the harsh realities of their lives in London. These invisible chains hold them back, not just from escaping their situations, but also from feeling truly free and hopeful.

Summary of stanza 3

The third stanza gives specific examples of the suffering the speaker sees. It mentions a series of people who are suffering: chimney sweepers are crying (this is a sad image of children being forced to do difficult and dangerous work); churches are disappointing: (this suggests that even places of religion, which should offer comfort and hope, are not helping people); and unhappy soldiers: (this shows that war is not glorious, but brings sadness and suffering to the soldiers fighting).

The final image of blood on palace walls is a shocking image that suggests violence and injustice have reached the most powerful people in society.

These details all contribute to a feeling that society is broken and unfair.

Summary of stanza 4

The final stanza focuses on the suffering witnessed in the city at night. The speaker hears the curses of young prostitutes, the cries of ‘new-born Infants’ and the association of marriage with death through the ‘Marriage hearse.’

These dark and disturbing images all contribute to the overall message of the poem: London is a city filled with suffering, moral decay, and a sense of hopelessness. The speaker seems to be suggesting that the city is not just physically dirty and polluted, but also morally corrupt and filled with despair.

Context of 'London'

William Blake's life, education and career

William Blake (1757–1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker, best known for his poetry. He was born in London, to a middle-class family. From a young age, Blake showed a talent for drawing and writing.

At the age of ten, Blake began attending Henry Pars’s drawing school. He later apprenticed with an engraver, James Basire, which laid the foundation for his career as a printmaker. Blake’s early exposure to the Bible and classical literature influenced his artistic and poetic work.

In 1782, Blake married Catherine Boucher.

Despite his talents, Blake struggled to gain recognition during his lifetime, facing financial difficulties and limited success. However, he remained committed to his artistic vision, producing work that included poetry collections like ‘Songs of Innocence’ and ‘Songs of Experience’.

Romanticism

‘London’ is categorised as a Romantic poem, a literary movement that emphasises emotion, imagination, and individualism. Romantic poets like Blake sought to express the inner experiences and subjective truths of the human condition.

Unlike other Romantic poets who celebrated nature and the sublime, Blake focused on the urban environment and the human condition within it. His poetry often explored visionary and mystical themes, offering a unique perspective on society.

Context of 'London'

Industrial Revolution

‘London’ by William Blake was written during the late 18th century, a period characterised by the rapid changes of the Industrial Revolution and urbanisation. The Industrial Revolution led to significant changes in society, including the rise of factories, urbanisation, and the growth of cities like London. This transformation brought both economic prosperity and social challenges. The rapid urbanisation resulted in overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions, especially for the working class. Poverty and inequality were widespread, with many people struggling to survive in the burgeoning city. Children and the vulnerable were particularly at risk in these conditions, where there was no welfare state and few opportunities to break free of the endless cycle of poverty.

French Revolution

In 1879, just five years before the publication of ‘London’ in 1894, the French Revolution erupted, sending shockwaves across Europe.

Initially, William Blake, a champion of liberty and social justice, embraced the revolution’s ideals. However, the revolution’s descent into violence and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte disillusioned him. This disillusionment likely colours his portrayal of London, reflecting a sense of lost hope and a society teetering on the brink.

The role of the British government

After the French Revolution, the British government of the late 18th century responded with fear and repression, afraid of what a similar uprising of the people would do in England. The government enacted stricter laws and implemented harsher punishments for dissent. This climate of fear and suppression likely informs Blake’s portrayal of a society where the cries of the oppressed go unheard and the powerful remain unchallenged.

Line-by-line analysis

Stanza 1

I wander thro' each charter'd street,

Personal pronouns are used, giving the poem a sense of immediacy and honest, first-person observations.
There are multiple interpretations of the word ‘Charter’d’ here. Most obviously, it suggests the formal planning of the streets of London, and implies that the city is a large grid of streets, magnifying the size of the city. It could also be a reference to the sense of restriction, with ‘chartered’ used as a metaphor for the limitations and restrictions imposed on the people.

Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,

Repetition of ‘charter’d’ emphasises the second interpretation above: the restrictions imposed on the people out of fear of revolution. While streets can be ‘chartered’, it is much harder to charter a river as big as the Thames.

And mark in every face I meet

Alliteration in the repetition of the ‘m’ sound (‘mark’ and ‘meet’) creates a sense of emphasis on the speaker’s observations.

Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

Anaphora and parallelism are used in the repetition of the phrase ‘marks of’ to emphasise the prevalence of suffering and hardship among the people.

Stanza 2

In every cry of every Man,

Repetition of ‘every’ emphasises the universality of suffering; it reaches all Londoners.

In every Infant's cry of fear,

Anaphora is used in the repetition of ‘In every…’ creating rhythm in this line and further emphasising the extent of the suffering of the people.
The speaker includes children’s cries, making this line more emotive.
Emotive language is also used in the abstract noun ‘fear’: the intangible fear of the people brings suffering to the fore.

In every voice: in every ban,

Anaphora is used again, creating a triplet structure to these first three lines of verse two.
The line is fractured by a colon creating a caesura. This pause shortens the phrase length and quickens the pace, creating heightened intensity and a sense of increased fear.

The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

This sentence finally ends (each verse has an end stop at the end of the verse) with the main substance of the sentence: what the speaker hears.
The metaphor of ‘mind-forg’d manacles’ is used to represent the mental imprisonment or oppression of the people. Manacles are chains, for example those used to keep prisoners in jail at this time, reinforcing the image that the people of London are imprisoned by poverty, injustice and corruption in their minds as well as in their physical existence.
Alliteration of ‘mind-forg’d manacles’ creates a sensory effect: it is both visual and auditory.

Stanza 3

How the Chimney-sweeper's cry

‘Chimney-sweepers’ holds several implications. Firstly, the job of chimney sweeps implies the dirt, soot and smog of life in London and the increase of soot due to the Industrial Revolution. Secondly, the job of chimney sweep was given to young children as they were small enough to fit up inside chimneys. The conditions were appalling for these children, who were not educated nor allowed to experience the joy and freedom of childhood, but rather forced to work to survive.
The verb ‘cry’ reminds us of the age of the chimney sweeps: they were young children.

Every blackning Church appalls;

Imagery of ‘blackning Church’ suggests the moral corruption or decay of the church.
The repetition of ‘every’ from the previous stanza effectively creates the sense that the problems are all-encompassing.
The adjective ‘blackning’ suggests both the physical soot and smog of the factory smoke of the Industrial Revolution as well as the metaphorical blackening of the church. In this case, it is not pockets of the church but the whole institution which is corrupt.

And the hapless Soldier's sigh

‘hapless’ here means ‘unfortunate’: the soldiers have been let down by the institutions of the country, and their blood metaphorically marks the buildings of these institutions.
The conjunction ‘and’ which starts the line gives a long drawn out effect to the verse, making the list of corrupt people and places seem longer.

Runs in blood down Palace walls.

This metaphor is vivid, making it clear who the speaker blames for the deaths of soldiers, the conditions for children and the state of the city: the blame is firmly placed on the establishments of both church and state. The palace represents the monarchy and government who the speaker feels oppressed the people.

Stanza 4

But most thro' midnight streets I hear

Pathetic fallacy is used here to match the conditions to the mood: the choice of ‘midnight’ for this walk through London highlights the darkness and desolation of the city, physically and morally.
The first-person pronoun makes this final stanza more immediate after the slightly more removed criticisms of the church and state in stanza 3.

How the youthful Harlot's curse

The adjective ‘youthful’ reminds the reader of the chimney sweeps from the previous stanza: both the chimney sweeps and the prostitutes are children. Along with Blake, other writers of the time were critical of the treatment of children. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was highly critical of the treatment of children in Victorian England (check out ‘Great Expectations’ or ‘Oliver Twist’).
The reference to ‘Harlots’ emphasises the grim reality of prostitution, and the seedy and corrupt world of London at the time.

Blasts the new-born Infant's tear,

Again, the imagery of ‘new-born Infant’s tear’ focuses on the impact of poverty and corruption on children, and suggests the destruction of innocence.
The verb ‘blasts’ is aggressive and destructive, reminding the reader of the harm caused by the conditions of the city.

And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

The consonance of ‘blights with plagues‘ and the long vowel sounds draw these words out, emphasising the negative imagery created. The semantic field of disease imagery is a powerfully dark way to end the poem.
There is juxtaposition in the image of the ‘marriage hearse’, which combines ideas of life and death. In ‘marriage’, there are ideas of joy, hope and the potential of new life in the form of children, and in ‘hearse’, there are ideas of death, funerals and the loss of hope for change. These juxtaposing words suggest that the cycle of poverty, disease and death continues into future generations, giving no hope for change for the people of the city.

Analysis of form and structure

Verse structure

‘London’ is written in regular, even quatrains (four-line verses) throughout, giving it a highly structured and rhythmic pattern. The structure and regularity of the verses mimic the key word ‘chartered’ used in the first verse. ‘Chartered’ suggests the structure and control of the city, which is reflected in the versification of the poem.

Rhyme

As with the rhythm and verse structure, the rhyme scheme of ‘London’ also follows a consistent pattern, contributing to the poem’s overall structure.

Each quatrain is organised in an alternating (ABAB) rhyme scheme, with the first and third lines rhyming with each other, and the second and fourth lines rhyming with each other.

This regular rhyme scheme uses end rhyme to add a sense of closure to each stanza, enhancing the poem’s rhythmic flow and reinforcing its musicality.

Rhythm

‘London’ uses a steady and deliberate pace, creating a very regular rhythm.

The poem is written in iambic tetrameter, with each line consisting of four metrical feet (four stressed syllables). Let’s take a look at iambic tetrameter more closely. Here are the first two lines of the poem. The backslash shows each pair of syllables, and the syllable in bold is the stressed syllable of each pair. In an iambic rhythm, the stressed syllable comes second, after the unstressed syllable:

I wan/der thro’/ each char/ter’d street,/
Near where/ the char/ter’d Thames/ does flow,/

In this pattern of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables, the stressed syllable falls second, meaning the final syllable of each line is stressed. This allows the rhyme scheme to stand out more audibly and therefore contributes to the poem’s musicality and structure. The use of iambic tetrameter lends a sense of fluidity and movement to the verses, guiding the reader smoothly through the poem as if walking through the streets of the city.

Themes in 'London'

Restriction and oppression

Industrial Revolution brought increased urbanisation and manufacturing to London, which brought opportunities for wealth and expansion, but alongside progress, it brought the oppression and exploitation of the poor. Blake pulls no punches in this poem, making it clear that the ‘blackning church’ and the ‘palace walls’ are to blame (i.e. the institutions of power) for the oppression of the poor and the young.

Loss of innocence

Blake’s particular focus in ‘London’ is on the impact of so much change of children. The reference to chimney sweeps and harlots both indicate they are children, and the cry of the infant is also an emotive plea for change in the city.

Quiz

Quiz on ‘London’ by William Blake

Test your knowledge of the poem 'London' by William Blake

Comprehension Questions

Describe the speaker’s experience as they wander through London.
Explain what the speaker observes in the faces of the people they meet.
How does the speaker characterise the cries of the people in London?
Identify one metaphor used by the speaker to describe the suffering in London.
How does the speaker in “London” describe the power dynamics evident in the city?
In what ways does the poem suggest that power is wielded oppressively in London, and what role do institutions like churches and palaces play in this oppression?
How does the imagery of “mind-forg’d manacles” relate to the theme of power in the poem?
Select one relevant contextual factor and explain how it influences our understanding of this poem.
Explain the impact of some of the structural devices on our understanding of the poem, focusing especially on the verse structure and rhyme scheme.
Which poem from your Power and Conflict anthology would you compare and contrast with ‘London’? Create a mind map to show the similarities and differences between these two poems.

Other poems from the AQA Power and Conflict Anthology to pair with 'London'

Checking Out Me History by John Agard

‘London’ highlights the suffering and oppression endured by its people, while Agard’s poem explores the speaker’s search for their history and identity, challenging the narratives imposed by colonial powers. While Blake employs vivid imagery and metaphor to convey his critique of urban life, Agard uses a mix of Creole and English language to subvert traditional literary forms and reclaim marginalised histories. These poems have plenty to contrast in their form, language and contexts.

The Emigree by Carol Rumens

‘London’ portrays the bleakness and despair of life in the industrialised city of London during the late 18th century, while ‘The Emigree’ explores the memories and nostalgia of a speaker who has been displaced from her homeland due to political unrest. Both poems use vivid metaphors to convey their themes, with Blake focusing on the dehumanising effects of urbanisation and Rumens exploring the impact of displacement on personal identity. The different form, structure and context of the poems gives students plenty to contrast.