London Flashcards
What is the form
It is in quatrains with the rhyme scheme ABAB in Iambic tetrameter. It is in closed from which shows that it is inescapable time loop. People will always suffer. London looks organised afar but close it is chaotic.
A quote from the opening with analysis
“I wander through each chartered street… chartered Thames”
*Forcing human power on nature. Man wants to organise everything, even uncontrollable things. It is a satirical attack on property rights.
*Irony that the river can’t be controlled, and the Londoners are controlled.
*“Chartered” streets are mapped which are supposed to be helpful. Blake argues against urbanisation which destroys what once was natural. The King “chartered” the areas; it was once fee but now we must rent a place on the street.
*“I wandered” – contrast as we should be free but are controlled.
2 quotes from SOAPAIMS
“The mind-forged manacles I hear”
* The society ideologies restrict you from freedom due to external authorities and issues such as industrial revolution and corruption of the church leads to this. It is the social hierarchy, and it only works because it is a construct to organise the society like this in our minds. If we remove this thinking, then we will be free
* “m” sounds – alliteration which has a harsh and forceful tone
* Verb “forged” means to be fake, showing class system is fake.
“Every black’ning church appalls”
* “black’ning” refers to the pollution caused by the industrial revolution
* Alternatively suggest corruption of church as they take in money and say it’s a sin not to give money to help them, but the money doesn’t go to the poor
What is the structure
First stanza take in sights and sounds he sees. He is concerned with what he sees. Second stanza describes what he can hear, and it gives a sensory element. He is developing an understanding. Third stanza about the power which is corrupted and final stanza is how the city is dead. It is a “hearse”. Cyclical structure of suffering. You can never escape it.
2 quotes from ending
“Runs in blood down palace walls”
* The unhappiness of the British soldier could cause an uprising and this phrase is normally for the bloodshed of the French Revolution. But it is a symbol of freedom turned into violence
* Or upper-class people are safe, but the lower class is suffering on the outside. The upper class don’t care and are unwilling to do anything about it creating a divide.
* This revolution is very likely to happen in England, suggesting the soldiers will die at home defending the King against the people. He is suggesting society is so corrupt the rich having so much power and wealth, that the poor will rise and kill them.
“And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.”
* “Marriage hearse” – oxymoron. Happy image of marriage linked to death. Suggests what was good is destined to be destroyed. New things will always be destroyed.
* The existence of a prostitute (who may or may not have a child) ruins the concept of marriage - leads to the death of the marriage.
Suggests that society has destroyed all the good things in life. Juxtaposed images of happiness ‘marriage’ with death ‘hearse’.
* London is like an illness. It will corrupt many people and is uncurable
