Blake's Angry Walk Through London
Ever wondered what it would feel like to walk through a city where everyone looks miserable? Blake takes us on exactly that journey through the streets of London, and he's absolutely fuming about what he sees.
The poem opens with Blake wandering through "chartered" streets near the "chartered" Thames. This repetition of "chartered" shows how everything in London is owned and controlled by the wealthy - even the river! Blake notices "marks of weakness, marks of woe" on every face he meets, suggesting that poverty and hardship have literally scarred the people.
Blake uses the repetition of "every" to hammer home his point that absolutely no one escapes this suffering. Every man cries, every infant fears, every voice shows despair. He describes "mind-forged manacles" - basically, people have become so beaten down that they've created mental chains that keep them trapped in hopeless thinking.
Key Point: Blake isn't just describing poverty - he's showing how an entire society has become mentally and physically imprisoned by inequality and corruption.
