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Characters · 4
The Chimney Sweeper
The Chimney Sweeper surfaces in a striking, haunting image in William Blake's poem "London" (Songs of Experience, 1794): the speaker sees him weeping as he works in the streets — "the chimney-sweeper's cry / Every black'ning church appalls."
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The Harlot
The Harlot emerges in the climactic final stanza of William Blake's "London" (Songs of Experience, 1794), introduced by the wandering Speaker as the last and most devastating symbol of the city's corruption.
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The Soldier
The Soldier appears in William Blake's "London" (from Songs of Experience, 1794) as one of several figures whose suffering condemns the oppressive social and political order of the city.
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The Speaker / Wanderer
The Speaker / Wanderer serves as the central consciousness in William Blake's poem "London," acting as both the narrator and a moral witness to the suffering that permeates the city's streets.
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Key quotes · 8
“Blasts the new-born Infant's tear, / And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.”
These closing lines are from William Blake's poem "London," which appeared in Songs of Experience (1794).
Unnamed narrator / lyric speaker · Songs of Experience
“But most thro' midnight streets I hear / How the youthful Harlot's curse.”
These lines conclude William Blake's poem "London," which appears in Songs of Experience (1794).
First-person narrator / the poet-speaker · Songs of Experience
“I wander thro' each charter'd street, / Near where the charter'd Thames does flow.”
These lines come from "London," a poem by William Blake featured in Songs of Experience (1794).
The Wanderer / Poetic Speaker · London (Songs of Experience)
“In every cry of every Man, / In every Infant's cry of fear.”
These lines are from William Blake's poem "London," which first appeared in Songs of Experience in 1794.
Unnamed narrator / the poet · London (Songs of Experience)
“And mark in every face I meet / Marks of weakness, marks of woe.”
These lines are from William Blake's poem "London," which appeared in Songs of Experience (1794).
Unnamed narrator / wandering speaker · London (poem), Songs of Experience
“In every voice, in every ban, / The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.”
These lines are from William Blake's poem "London," which was published in Songs of Experience in 1794.
Unnamed narrator / lyric speaker · Songs of Experience
“And the hapless Soldier's sigh / Runs in blood down Palace walls.”
These lines are from William Blake's poem "London," which appeared in Songs of Experience (1794).
Unnamed narrator / lyric speaker · Songs of Experience
“How the Chimney-sweeper's cry / Every black'ning Church appalls.”
These lines are from William Blake's poem "London," featured in Songs of Experience (1794).
Unnamed narrator / the poet · London (Songs of Experience)
Symbols · 5
Chartered Streets
In William Blake's poem London, the "chartered streets" and "chartered Thames" represent the stifling control of institutional power over every part of human life.
Mind-Forged Manacles
In William Blake's poem London, the "mind-forged manacles" represent the invisible chains of mental and psychological oppression that people impose on themselves, often reinforced by society.
The Chimney Sweeper's Soot
In William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, the soot covering the chimney sweepers symbolizes the heavy burden of industrial exploitation and the moral decay inflicted on the innocent.
The Marriage Hearse
In William Blake's poem London, the "Marriage Hearse" combines two contrasting ideas—marriage and death—into a powerful and unsettling image.
The Thames River
In William Blake's poem London, the Thames River represents the heavy control that social, political, and religious institutions have over people's lives.
Literary devices · 12
Anaphora
Blake hammers the word "every" throughout the poem's central stanzas with relentless insistence: "In every cry of every Man, / In every Infant's cry of fear, / In every voice, in every ban."
Repetition
Beyond the anaphoric use of 'every,' Blake repeats the word 'charter'd' in the poem's opening lines — 'I wander thro' each charter'd street, / Near where the charter'd Thames does flow' — compelling the reader to encounter the word twice before the poem truly starts.
Imagery
The poem is packed with sensory details that come together to depict urban despair.
Symbolism
Blake's concept of 'mind-forg'd manacles' serves as the poem's key symbol: these chains aren’t made of iron but are instead rooted in our consciousness, shaped by ideology, religion, and law.
Metaphor
The phrase 'mind-forg'd manacles' serves as the poem's most potent metaphor: the mind transforms into a blacksmith's forge, crafting its own chains.
Oxymoron
'The Marriage hearse' in the poem's final line represents Blake's sharpest oxymoron: marriage, which symbolizes social and sexual union, is linked to the hearse, a symbol of death and finality.
Juxtaposition
Blake deliberately positions the powerful next to the powerless to highlight the violence in their disparity.
Irony
The poem's irony lies in its examination of institutions.
Personification
Blake turns abstract concepts into harmful agents.
Quatrain
London consists of four quatrains, each following an ABAB rhyme scheme, a structure linked to ballads and popular songs — the literature of the people.
End Rhyme
The poem's ABAB end-rhymes — 'street/meet,' 'flow/woe,' 'fear/hear,' 'ban/man,' 'cry/sigh,' 'appalls/walls,' 'curse/hearse' — might seem straightforward, following the ballad tradition.
Volta
The poem takes its sharpest turn at the beginning of the third stanza with the lines, 'How the Chimney-sweeper's cry / Every blackning Church appalls.'