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((short description|Poem by William Blake))
((for|the 1738 poem by [[Samuel Johnson]]|London (Samuel Johnson poem)))
((Use dmy dates|date=April 2022))
((multiple issues|
((essay-like|date=March 2018))
((more citations needed|date=March 2018))
))
[[File:Blake London.jpg|thumb|300px|This image is a digital reproduction of his hand-painted 1826 print of "London" from Copy AA of ''[[Songs of Innocence and Experience]]''. The item is currently in the Collection of the [[Fitzwilliam Museum]].<ref>((cite web| url =http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=songsie.aa.illbk.46&java=yes | title = Songs of Innocence and of Experience, object 46 (Bentley 46, Erdman 46, Keynes 46) "LONDON" |editor=Morris Eaves |editor2=Robert N. Essick |editor3=Joseph Viscomi| publisher = [[William Blake Archive]]|access-date = June 10, 2014))</ref>]]
"'''London'''" is a poem by [[William Blake]], published in ''[[Songs of Experience]]'' in 1794. It is one of the few [[Poetry|poems]] in ''Songs of Experience'' that does not have a corresponding poem in ''[[Songs of Innocence]]''. Blake lived in [[London]] so writes of it as a resident rather than a visitor. The poems reference the "Two Contrary States of the Human Soul". The "Songs of Innocence" section contains poems which reference love, childhood and nature. Critics have suggested that the poems illustrate the effects of modernity on people and nature, through the discussion of dangerous industrial conditions, [[child labour]], [[prostitution]] and [[poverty]].<ref name=":0">((Cite web| url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetryplace/londonrev1.shtml | publisher=[[BBC]] | location=UK | title=GCSE Bitesize: Context|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-08-24))</ref>

==Poem==
<poem>
I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d [[River Thames|Thames]] does flow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear

How the Chimney-sweepers cry
Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls

But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

</poem>

==Analysis of the poem==

This poem is taken from “songs of experience”. It reveals the poet's feelings towards the society in which he lived. [[England]] in the 1800s became very oppressive, influenced by fears over the [[French Revolution]]. Laws began to be imposed which restricted the freedom of individuals. At first, Blake loved London, writing about “golden London and her silver Thames, throng’d with shining spires and corded ships”(Poetical Sketches), but after the French Revolution, the British government began to oppress the civil democratic activities, making London quite different from before: "everything was covered with darkness, terrors and miseries.” (Zhan,2013). Thus he shows a negative picture of London, and offers social criticism of early 19th-century England.<ref>((Cite web|title=London By William Blake Summary and Analysis|url=http://e-kalvi.com/london-by-william-blake-summary-and-analysis/|website=e-kalvi.com))</ref> An [[acrostic]] can be found in the third stanza. The word "Hear" is spelled out in the first letters of each line.  This acrostic is foreshadowed in the last word of the second stanza.<ref>((Cite web|last=Prose and Poetry|date=2021-03-06|title=Acrostic Poem - Shouting at the past|url=https://prosepoetry.uk/poetry-forms/acrostic/acrostic-poem-shouting-at-the-past/|access-date=2021-03-07|website=Prose & Poetry|language=en-GB))</ref>

==Themes==
* Lack of freedom
* Sources for the lack of freedom
* Downfall of London.<ref>((Cite web|title=Themes|url=http://e-kalvi.com/london-by-william-blake-summary-and-analysis/|website=e-kalvi.com))</ref>

==Literary techniques==
* [[Polyptoton]] - "mark in every face I meet, // Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
* [[Figura etymologica|Figura Etymologica]] "And mark in every face I meet // Marks of weakness, marks of woe." ("mark" as a verb, in contrast to "Mark" as a noun - alternative analysis to the polyptoton analysis)
* Structure – four quatrains with alternate lines rhyming. ABABCDCD
* [[Alliteration]] – “weakness, marks of woe”
* [[Oxymoron]] – Marriage hearse
* Repetition:
** “chartered” – shows the inability to escape and reflects the suffocating atmosphere of the London city.
** “cry” – shows the suffering of both adults and children in London.
((Quotebox|align=right| quote=
<poem>
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 Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear

How the Chimney-sweepers cry
Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls

But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse<ref>((cite book |last=Blake |first=William |author-link=William Blake |editor-last=Erdman |editor-first=David V. |editor-link=David V. Erdman |title=The Complete Poetry and Prose |date=1988 |publisher=Anchor Books |isbn=0385152132 |edition=Newly revised |pages=26–27 |url=https://archive.org/details/completepoetrypr00blak/page/))</ref></poem>))

==Publishing==
''Songs of Innocence and Experience'' was <!-- Title takes a singular verb--> originally hand-printed and illustrated by Blake in 1794.<ref name=":0" /> Punctuation: as can be seen in the image, there are capital letters, commas, and full stops (periods).  Using these as a guide, the poem read as transcribed above when first attached to the image by Blake.  The text appears with some alterations and/or additions to its punctuation in later iterations—19th through 21st-century anthologies, reviews, etc.  Was Blake ever the individual making such changes, or was it always later editors and publishers?

==Allusions==
Blake suggests that the experience of living there could encourage a revolution on the streets of the capital. This could have been influenced by the recent [[French Revolution]]. The use of the word "chartered" is ambiguous and goes against control and ownership. It may express the [[political]] and [[economic]] control that Blake considered London to be enduring at the time of his writing. Blake's friend [[Thomas Paine]] had criticised the granting of [[Royal Charter]]s to control trade as a form of class oppression.<ref>Stephen Bygrave (ed), ''Romantic Writings'', Routledge, 1996, p. 20; Tom Paulin, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/mar/03/poetry.williamblake "The Invisible Worm"], ''The Guardian'', London, March 3, 2007.</ref> However, "chartered" could also mean "freighted" and may refer to the busy or overburdened streets and river or to the licensed trade carried on within them.<ref>E. P. Thompson, ''[[Witness Against the Beast|Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law]]'', Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 176.</ref>  In the original draft, the word used was simply "dirty" ("I wander through each dirty street / Near where the dirty Thames does flow"). Blake makes reference to the "Blackening church" suggesting that the church as an institution is not only physically blackening from the soot of London, but is actually rotting from the inside, insinuating severe corruption.<ref>((Cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126746.html|title = William Blake's Notebook))</ref> Blake created the idea of the poem from using a semantic field of unhappiness. This is presented through the verbs 'curse', 'cry' and 'sigh'.

==Adaptations==
[[Ralph Vaughan Williams]] set the poem to music in his 1958 [[song cycle]] ''[[Ten Blake Songs]]''.

The poem was set to music in 1965 by [[Benjamin Britten]] as part of his song cycle ''[[Songs and Proverbs of William Blake]]''.

The poem was set to music in 1987 by [[Tangerine Dream]] on their album ''[[Tyger (album)|Tyger]]''; the album is based on the poems of William Blake.

"London" also inspired the opening lines of [[The Verve]]'s 1995 single "[[History (The Verve song)|History]]".

[[Sparklehorse]] adapted the poem into music in a single, which was also named after it.

==References==
((Reflist))

==External links==
((wikisource|London (Blake)))
*[http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/comparison.xq?selection=compare&copies=all&bentleynum=B46&copyid=songsie.l&java= A Comparison of the original hand-painted copies of "London"] available from the [[William Blake Archive]]
* [https://archive.org/details/Lethargica_-_William_Blakes_London William Blake's London] by Lethargica. The Internet Archive. Retrieved 07/05/2008.
* [https://literaturearticles.com/poem-london-william-blake-main-theme The Poem 'London'] main theme of the 'London' by William Blake.
((William Blake|lit))
((Authority control))

[[Category:1794 poems]]
[[Category:Songs of Innocence and of Experience]]
[[Category:Works about London]]
[[Category:Poems about cities]]
[[Category:Culture associated with the River Thames]]

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