Analysis of Blake's London
Tugas Akhir Literature ( Semester ll ) - William Blake's poem, "London", is obviously a sorrowful
poem. In the first two stanzas, Blake utilizes alliteration and word choice
to set the
mournful atmosphere. Blake introduces his reader to the narrator as he
"wanders" through the "chartered" society. A society in
which every person he sees has "marks of weakness, marks of woe."
Blake repeatedly uses the word "every" and "cry" in the
second stanza to symbolize the depression that hovers over the entire society.
The "mind-forged manacles" the narrator hears suggests that he is not
mentally stable.
In the third stanza, Blake utilizes
imagery of destruction and religion. This imagery is a paradox, which implies
some religious destruction like the apocalypse. The "chimney-sweeper's
cry" symbolizes the society trying to clean the ashes that causes their
state of depression. Blake uses the religious
imagery
of the "black'ning church" to represent the loss of innocence, and
the society's abandonment of religion. The use of the soldiers creates an
imagery of war. The "hapless soldier's sigh" symbolize how men are
drafted into war and have no choice but to serve their country. As these
soldiers unwilling march to the beat of the country's forceful drum, they know
their lives will be taken, as their "sigh runs in blood down palace
walls." Blake uses this sense of destruction to explain how people are
forced to repair the "weakness" and "woe" of their society.
The fourth stanza of
"London" unravels the complex meaning of the poem. The
"youthful harlot's curse" symbolizes how the youth's sinful deeds
will effect the next generation. Their "curse" causes the
"newborn infant's tear" which exemplifies how the new generation will
have to correct the mistakes of the previous generation. The
"plagues" also symbolizes this curse, and the "marriage
hearse" creates a paradox, which confuses eternity and death.