London An Explication
“London” is a poem from a series of works, Songs of Experience, by William Blake. This poem has a powerful effect on every reader by describing post-Industrial London, filled with prostitution, child labor and poverty. The ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GHGH rhyme scheme is ironically simple in that the nursery rhyme like tone sharply contrasts with the faint yet explicit depictions of social injustices in London. Like many of Blake’s other works dealing with a similar theme, “London” describes living in a society where the cost of living compared with income is steadily increasing. ... “London” describes Blake’s disapproval of changes that occurred in his lifetime. In the tradition of the majority of Blake’s poems, “London” is yet another song like, lyrical, work. “London” actually is a particularly good example of the typical song of experience; portraying qualities such as dramatic passion and anger, complex symbols and appealing to experience, a darker knowledge of evil. ... As he is wandering through the “chartered streets,” he notices the “marks of weakness, marks of Norman 2 woe” on the faces of the people, which represents the hardships the people on the streets of London have faced.