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 black'ning 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.
I saw a writing about the last line: " And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse"
ReplyDeleteIn this line the husband is unfaitful to his wife. The love between couples is like death. In this context, contemporary feminist Mary Wolstencraft calls the marriage as legalised prostitution on behalf of women. Marriage can be percieved as death of love or funeral love. I like the term " legalised prostitution" which tells about the sufferings of women in the marriages.
The poet has a rising anger towards the end of the poem. As some of his contemporary poets said, this showed that his most striking solution for the urbanization was to stop giving birth to a child not to make them cry. Therefore, these poets accuse W.Blake of not giving any concrete solution. They ignore his emotions about these huge changes in their lifestyle. I cannot call them as poets who make comments only to be able to criticise him.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem, the last stanza affected me most. Because as sedef says poet's anger rises and he doesn't even want marriage institution. He thinks new born children become soldiers when they grow up. So he marriage is meaningless for him. Namely, industrialization affected people in that time so much that they can not even regard the marriage as an emotional thing. We can understand that in that time urban life and industrialization created many problems for people.
ReplyDeleteIn this poem, we see that the narrator is so angry and sad about the effects of the industrialization on the people and London. He shows us a picture of London which is gloomy. People are not happy with their life.
ReplyDeleteIn these lines:
"...Every black'ning Church appals,
and the hapless Soldiers sigh
runs in blood down Palace walls...
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse." I think, the poet thinks that the people's life surrounded by institutions(church, army, government and even marriage) which are so strict that they force people to live like a machine.
this poem is concerned with the problems of urbanized society. poet can see the minds of those sad people who lost their unity. children are brought up and sent to armies. and they come across with a huge difficult situation.they lose their lives. everything lose its deep meaning. innocence and dignity is lost. streets are full of sad people. and poet can see marks of woe..life loses its meaning. marriage also loses it. because marriages produce infants who will be soldiers and die. nature is polluted by the factories. life is hopeless. and the only thing that can save people from that bad situation is releaizing their emotions and try to renew their souls with the delight and the beauty of nature.
ReplyDeleteWe can imagine desperate people living in London. There are problems which people have as a resut of industrial revolution. They are affected in many ways by that revolution.They are always under the rules restricted by state and religion. They feel themselves dependent because they are always prevented from explaining themselves.There is also a paradox. Although England is a wealthy counrty, people are suffering from poverty as a result of unbalanced incomes.While poor people have to work during their lives, wealthy ones don't need. Living only as a workforce is so humiliating for a humanbeing.
ReplyDeleteI want to comment about the saying "mind - forg'd manacles".I think, here W.Blake refers to the people who were opressed and restricted by some institutions.These institutions are church,government etc.As a result people couldnot rebel against the restrictions.And they couldnot fight for their freedom.Lastly although this poem was written many years ago, it somehow reminds me how it is now.Even today there are many restrictions,rules and boundries for people.
ReplyDeleteI want to mention about the instutitions in the poem.I think W. Blake intentionally wrote these lines in an order.In the last line of the poem he tries to explain the corruption of even marriage instutition because family is the most important matter that constitutes the socitey. If marriage is not emotinal or significant enough in a society than it means the end of all beauties and virtues.In this manner, marriages just produce infants who'll become burden on society.The devastation of family means the deformity of all instutitions in society including state and religion as mentioned in the previous lines.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkGi_XAhtPc&feature=related
ReplyDeleteI badly recommend you to read " The Little Black Boy" by William Blake.
ReplyDeletewhen i first read the poem,i came to understand that Blake described 18th century London as a place which was full of people miserable,hopeless and desperate.When i looked at the times the poem was published i realized that it was published during the French Revolution and at those times the city of London was challenging political and social depression.This depression was definitely reflected to the poem by Blake.
ReplyDeletehere's a virtual movie of William Blake reading his poem ''London''.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG_OAIdn-dk
When I first read the poem, the time of London and its desperate urbanized society was imagined in my eyes. All the people are suffering from the consequences of industrialization. For me, the most effective lines are ‘’ Every black’ning Church appalls - And the hapless Soldiers sigh’’ Firstly, who are these soldiers? In the rest, there are harlots, infants and diseased marriages. Families which normally constitute the society are broken and infants who are the products of these marriages are crying, so we understand that there are serious corruptions. In normal conditions, at least the church should save these infants; however, it ignores them. As a result of it, these infants become future soldiers, which means that marriages are present to produce soldiers and everybody is responsible.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMERVE ÖNDER
ReplyDeletethis poem is concerned with the problems of urbanized society. poet can see the minds of those sad people who lost their unity. children are brought up and sent to armies. and they come across with a huge difficult situation.they lose their lives. everything lose its deep meaning. innocence and dignity is lost. streets are full of sad people. and poet can see marks of woe..life loses its meaning. marriage also loses it. because marriages produce infants who will be soldiers and die. nature is polluted by the factories. life is hopeless. and the only thing that can save people from that bad situation is releaizing their emotions and try to renew their souls with the delight and the beauty of nature.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGKHN OZKAN:
ReplyDeleteI believe cities might be very important parts of the literary works but
in William Blake's view who claims he could keep in touch with
angles,moreover have even observed ascention of his brothers soul, cities
are devastating and give rise to deterioration of human soul as well as
the great civilization that helps our lives be easier. As a poem written
in 1792, William Blake's London might be a sign of today in which a
president of a country which is named as 'killer country',is awarded for
Nobel peace prize just not to go on declaring wars against less powerful
countries or in which almost every semicivilized cities have at least one
'Thames'. Writer's flood of emotions brings great imaginations as well.
Here is the translation of the poem :LONDRA
William Blake
Dolaştım kaydedilmiş her caddeyi,
Yanında kaydedilmiş Temz’in aktığı yerin
Ve işaretledim her yüzde karşılaştığım
işaretlerini zafiyetin, işaretlerini dertin.
Her İnsanın her haykırışında,
Korkuyla bağırışında her bebeğin,
Her seste, her yasakta,
Akılla-dövülen kelepçeler işitirim.
Nasıl bağırtısı Baca-süpürücüsünün
Korkutur her siyahlanmış Kiliseyi,
Ve iç çekişi talihsiz askerin
Kanla dökülür saray duvarlarından.
Fakat en çok arasından geceyarısı caddelerinin
İşitirim nasıl laneti genç fahişenin
Kavurur gözyaşını yeni-doğmuş bebeğin
Ve felaketlerle yakar cenaze arabasını Evliliğin.
Translator: Vehbi Taşar
The poem London by William Blake has a sinister and corrupt atmosphere throughout its entirety, which we can tell by his use of language. He uses words such as “blackn’ing” and “Chimney sweepers cry”. These two statements linked together imply darkness and misery. Darkness from the word “blackn’ing” and also the soot associated with chimneys, and misery from the chimney sweepers “cry”. Also the word “blackn’ing” is placed next to “Church appals”, in this context the word “blackn’ing” could represent the guilt of the church, as in those times orphaned children were sent to work and chimney sweeps, and due to being stricken by poverty and their poor status they required help from the church for food and housing, but were frequently turned away. This is why “blackn’ing Church” is a vivid image to give to the reader, it’s a strong contradiction to the typical issues commonly associated with the church such as hope and the light of God. Blake uses language specifically in his first two stanzas with the words, “charter’d”, “in every”, and “marks”, this shows that Blake is not limiting this description to just the inhabitants of London. The repetition of these words indicates Blake’s emphasis on despair and confinement, which could also represent the suffocating mood of London and its inhabitants. His third stanza includes ‘’hapless soldiers sigh’’ and ‘’blood down Palace walls’’ which refer to the government or Monarchy sending young men off to fight for their country. ‘’runs in blood down Palace walls’’, shows us that Blake is placing blame on the institution that would send these young men to their deaths, the blood running down is a public image for all to see.
ReplyDeleteby the way thank you for the translation I really liked that:)
ReplyDeleteThis poem is one of the most controversial poems of the collection of Lyrical Ballads which was written by W. Wordsworth and T. Coleridge. It critisizes London as being a corrupt and highly immoral place.
ReplyDeleteTo me, this poem has a sorrowful, sad air about it. Because William here describes the negative emotions that he witnesses as he walks through the streets: "marks of weakness, marks of woe." He observes this in "every face" that he sees, suggesting the idea that depression has taken over this society.
Looks like William feels sorry for London children, and he is appalled at how his culture would allow children working as chimney-sweepers, as they get paid very little money and many of them die of lung diseases at a very young age
Jiyan Taher :
ReplyDeleteThe poet wants to show us the picture of London. The words like"weakness, woe, cry, fear, hapless," are the symbol of gloomy atmosphere, which quickly gives us an idea that the poet thinks of London in a negative way. According to him adults are suffering, children are suffering"chimney-aweepers cry”, soldiers are hapless, and the bad system which London has, are forcing girls to sell their body. Blake also uses "black'ning Church" to represent the loss of innocence. He wants to tell us that the society is cruel and life in London is hard and difficult.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA ‘chartered’ street has been approved by royal charter, which makes what follows all the more ironic.The repetition of ‘every’ stresses there are no exceptions, and the brilliant phrase ‘mind-forged manacles’ recalls Hamlet’s ‘nothing is but thinking makes it so.’
ReplyDeleteThe Church should be appalled by the chimney sweepers, who are tiny kids being deprived of heir education, and Royalty by the soldiers’ poor pay and unsatisfactory conditions of service.
The last verse of this great poem refers to the effects of venereal disease. It is passed from the father, who has slept with the prostitute before marriage, , to the mother, and thence to their child, ruining a life that has barely begun.
Blake wonders aimlessly through the streets of London where he finds that the streets and people are "charter'd" or directed. This is suggesting that people have been restricted from freedom of speech(was an actual law in place) and that the government indoctrinated the people into their "sovreign" x
ReplyDeleteThis line suggests that child labour was wide practise and that there were no laws or restrictions on who worked. This could be ironic as the government controls the people of London so rigidly yet they allow the expolitation of children?
The Church is a symbol of salvation, hope and freedom yet Blake has symbolied it here as murderous, degrading and a institution to enforce ideas(another way that the government has control over the people)
Blake believes that marriage is a corrupt, institutialised system that represents the fears and inability of the English people to rebel and gain independence. Marriage is seen as "the beginning of the end" as people are (literally) signing away their right to freedom and independence.