Blake's "London" - A City of Suffering

Ever wondered what London was really like 250 years ago? Blake's poem reveals a shocking truth that's worlds away from tourist brochures.

William Blake was born in 1757 and came from the working class - he was an engraver who didn't trust authority or institutions. He believed marriage was oppressive and saw London as both a place of hope (his "new Jerusalem") and terrible misery. The French and American revolutions inspired his vision of freedom, making him question why British society wasn't changing.

The poem uses first person narration with an ABAB rhyme scheme, creating a personal yet structured journey through London's streets. Blake organises his observations cleverly: stanza 1 focuses on what he sees, stanza 2 on what he hears, and the final stanzas build to a dramatic climax.

Key insight: The word "chartered" appears twice in the opening - Blake's showing how everything in London, even the River Thames, is owned and controlled by those in power. This makes the narrator's ability to "wander" seem almost rebellious.

When Blake writes "marks of weakness, marks of woe" in line 4, even the metre becomes weaker through anapests (two unstressed syllables), showing how oppression literally breaks down the poem's rhythm just as it breaks down people's lives.