Blake's "London" - A City of Control and Suffering
Ever wondered what London was really like for ordinary people in the 1790s? Blake's poem strips away any romantic notions and shows us the harsh truth. The speaker wanders through chartered streets beside the chartered Thames - everything is mapped out, controlled, and owned by those in power.
The word "chartered" appears twice in the opening, immediately showing us that even nature (the river) has been claimed and controlled. This isn't freedom - it's a city where everything belongs to someone else. Blake uses this repetition to hammer home how institutional control dominates every aspect of life.
As the speaker walks, he sees "marks of weakness, marks of woe" in every face. The repetition of "marks" creates a drumbeat of despair - these aren't temporary sad expressions, but permanent scars left by a harsh society. The alliteration makes the image even more haunting.
Key insight: The regular 4-line, 4-stanza structure mirrors the rigid, controlled nature of the chartered city Blake is criticising.
Blake introduces his most famous metaphor: "mind-forged manacles". These mental chains show how people have become trapped not just by physical poverty, but by accepting their hopeless situation as normal.