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The fear and the misery cannot be escaped. The image here is of a town brimming with people and yet they are alienated and oppressed.
One of the most powerful literary techniques Blake employs in the poem is irony. In the beginning of the poem, after Blake introduces the notion of misery, he follows it with the notion of freedom. Those in the city are no doubt free but they are still miserable and crying out for help. Here we see that freedom is not only going to mean that things are working out well. Indeed, free societies experiences tragedy though that is a concept we rarely choose to associate with freedom. It is also important to note that this misery stems from "the mind-forged manacles" (8) of the people. This tells us that much of the suffering that these people are experiencing is self-inflicted. This idea forces the reader to stop and think about...
The repetition of the word "every" in the poem is significant because everyone is responsible for his or her own happiness and they cannot look to the government to give it to them.
Blake's "London" focuses on man's suffering but it also asks us to determine from where the suffering comes. While we might think that it comes from a modernized society or a city that is filled with people or perhaps from a "caring" government, the truth is quite different. Blake is walking through the streets of a lovely city and all he can see is misery from a people that are alienated from one another for no apparent reason. Through imagery and irony, he makes his point.
Works Cited
Blake, William. "London." The Norton Anthology of English Literature M.H.
Abrams, ed. New York W.W. Norton and…
Works Cited
Blake, William. "London." The Norton Anthology of English Literature M.H.
Abrams, ed. New York W.W. Norton and Company. 1986.
Thus, Blake presents an explicit condemnation not only of organized religion, but specifically those religions which seek official legitimization and control over non-adherents; considering that the Church of England was (and is) the official religion of England, whose leader simultaneously serves as the head of state, Blake's condemnation of religions and religious adherents who presume to "[govern] the unwilling" must be recognized for the rebellious and almost revolutionary statement
William Blake Although he was misunderstood and underappreciated throughout his lifetime, William Blake and his work only truly became influential after his death in 1827 (William Blake, 2014). Although he is best known for his poetry, Blake also created a significant amount of art work and other publications throughout his life. Despite the fact that his work found no profound audience during his life, Williams Blake was nonetheless a visionary, whose
William Blake was born in London in 1757, the son of a hosier. He attended a drawing school and was subsequently apprenticed to an engraver from 1772-9, before attending the Royal Academy as a student from 1779 to 1780. During this time he made his living as an engraver, producing illustrations for the book trade, and was also composing and illustrating his own poetical works. He married Catherine Boucher in
William Blake was never fully appreciated in his own time but is still an influence on literary, political and theological analyses long after his death. While the amount of modern literary criticism that now exists should hold testament to his importance, Blake and his visions, pastoral-like settings and illuminated writings shaped the modern literary canon and paved the way for others. Specifically his works "The Divine Image," its companion poem
William Blake Social Indictment and a Religious Vision of Salvation in William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" Written in 1789 and published in the collection, Songs of Innocence, William Blake's poem "The Chimney Sweeper," shows the cruel world of being a child in post-industrial London. The narrator of the poem is a chimney sweeper who was sold into the profession by his father, his mother having died when he was very young. Before
William Blake is usually classified with the Romantic movement in English literature -- which coalesced in the revolutionary climate of the late eighteenth century, and roughly spanned the period from 1780 to 1830. The Romantic movement spanned a time of enormous social change in Britain. Not only was this a period of time that witnessed revolutions in America (1776) and France (1789), Britain itself would have to subdue a rebellion