William Blake\'s \"London\" William Blake\'s

¶ … William Blake's "London"

William Blake's poem, "London," is poem that forces us to look at happiness and what exactly that term means. The poet goes to great lengths to describe certain scenes in the city that reveal pain and misery to him. He hears the cries of the people and he sees their suffering everywhere he turns. The imagery in this poem is powerful but it even more powerful is the irony. The poet is looking at a city that is modernized and, for all intents and purposes, should be happy. However, the townspeople are anything but happy. They are alienated and oppressed despite all the trappings of modern life. The poem asks us to consider what it means to be happy. These people might have caused their own misery by depending on the government to bring them happiness. "London" is a poem that asks the reader to look beyond the surface and consider the real meaning of happiness and Blake accomplishes this through powerful imagery and irony.

Blake employs symbolism in the poem to prove his points. For example, one of his primary concerns is to convey the misery that he sees all around him. When he walks down the streets, he witnesses "marks of weakness, marks of woe" (Blake 4) on the faces of those he encounters. He also hears "every cry of man" (5) as well as, the "Chimney-sweeper's cry / Every blackening Church appalls, / And the hapless Soldier's sigh" (9-12). As he continues on his was he can also hear "How the youthful Harlot's curse / Blasts the new-born Infant's tear, / And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse" (14-6). These scenes are powerful because they are filled with images that are not difficult to imagine. The last scene is important because the poet is attempting to show the reader how the fear that he hears in the baby's cry is one that the baby will probably know when he is an adult. 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 things in a different way. 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.