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London analysis william blake essay
Full analysis of London by William Blake
Full analysis of London by William Blake
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Analysis of Blake's London
In the formal approach method to critical analysis, it is essential to read William Blake's "London" mechanically. Blake uses his rhetorical skills of alliteration, imagery, and word choice to create his poem, but more importantly to express the emotional significance that is implied.
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 poem opens with an introduction of the speaker: “When my mother died I was very young, / And my father sold me while yet my tongue / Could scarcely cry ’weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!” (ll. 1-3). The speaker’s pathetic circumstance is stressed here, and he quickly wins the sympathy of the reader; Blake makes this possible by quickly relating some but doubtfully all the previous sorrow that the speaker has endured. First, his mother died when he, and perhaps she, too, was quite young, a common occurrence in Industrial Age England, given the dismal shape of the inner city, which was host to such problems as over-crowding, poor hygienic practices and sub-par means of sanitation—all of which ultimately led to the deaths of thousands. Second, his father apparently sold him, or, more likely, forced him to work to supplement the family’s income. Child Labor laws had yet to be enacted in England in 1789, s...
Before delving any deeper into this poem and its meaning, a few basic questions must be answered first. I believe the speaker to be William Blake himself. I am able to infer this from the repeated use of the pronoun “I.” Thought the course of the poem, the speaker’s temperament changes. At the start of the poem the speaker ...
Whether we watch a group of people live together in a house (big brother), or watch them build the house (the Block), reality television exposes that little peeping tom in all of us. Reality TV satisfies that instinct of prying into the personal affairs of others, and the reality of reality television is that as humans we enjoy this. Reality TV is not much different from normal programs, like any program, reality television has the essentials, it has a mix of characters, it puts those characters in situation, and the result is usually a failure or success. But the catch of reality television is that the characters are real people, the story is not scripted, and with any failure or successes comes emotion. But does this reality TV revolution present the viewers with real life? Or does it present what the TV producers want the viewers to see?
It is in lines 10 – 24 that the poem becomes one of hope. For when Blake writes “As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight! That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack, Were all of them locked up in coffins of black. And by came an Angel who had a bright key, And he opened the coffins and set them all free;” Blake’s words ring true of hope for the sw...
From the way we talk, to the way we act, to the way we dress, reality TV has a very strong influence on the way we do it all. We watch everything from the typical TLC shows like long island medium, and 19 kids and counting, to all the competition shows like big brother, and the X factor and everything in between. Most of us watch it just for entertainment purposes because for some odd reason we find it so interesting to watch random celebrities do everything even if it’s just going out for lunch. We just can't get enough of our favourite families on keeping up with the kardashians and honey boo boo. And we find their lives so fascinating. A reality show is supposed to follow ordinary people and film them living their everyday lives just as they always do. Which is exactly what these shows do right? Obviously reality TV is real, no one would ever even dare to think about the possibility that it’s actually staged or edited or even scripted, or that their reactions are fake. And from the bachelor to the real housewives of every city in the United States it’s not even a question that it’...
The tone of a poem creates the mood of the reader. Without a set and fairly obvious tone, the poem would not have as much affect on its reader. In William Blake's "London," the tone is somewhat somber. He creates a mood of pity for the people of London. All social stratifications would appear to be unhappy with their status judging from such lines as "And mark in every face I meet/Marks of weakness, marks of woe" (Blake 497). From chimney sweeper to new-born child, all come across as hopeless. In "London," Blake creates an image of blood running down palace walls, which is quite obviously a sign of political insecurity during this time period. Opposition of citizens and government created an outcry of writers at this time in England, which would explain the somber, non-supportive tone of Blake's poem. T...
In their article “‘The Osbournes': Genre, Reality TV, and the Domestication of Rock 'n Roll” Rick Pieto and Kelly Otter define the reality TV genre, saying “that it is in essence one that finds its most valuable content in the unabashed display of individuals willing to be put on display as they part with their privacy, dignity, and composure. The genre is fairly clear, yet the formula in the shows varies so as to keep it fresh and increasingly bizarre to maintain its audience. Young women compete for a husband on camera by attempting to win the affection of a bachelor in six weeks; individuals compete for money by conquering their fears and consume live insects or allow themselves to be submerged under water for as long as possible; and couples test the strength of their relationships by subjecting themselves to the temptation of desirable strangers. Love, fear, and confli...
This poem is set in the speaker’s garden, a sacred place where he can assess his relationships and harvest his emotions. The speaker seems to be just an average man speaking on behalf of his personal experience and sharing this with his audience. Due to the simplicity of the poem’s theme we can assume the audience was intended to be humans in general, Blake wanted the message to be clear to everyone. As readers we can easily relate to the idea of holding a grudge against our enemies and letting it fester inside.
The poet mourns the death of his loved one and wants the world to grieve with him. His wants his subjective to be objective. The first stanza links everything to noise. He wants to 'silence the piano ' for example, showing how he wants no more noise in the world. Throughout the poem, there are many imperatives. This relates back to Remember, where the poems title is included in the imperatives. The third stanza has no imperatives at all, and many antonyms. This is the poets way of saying they meant everything to him. The second stanza uses 'scribbling ' to personify a plane. The use of personification in the poem links back to Do not go gentle into that good night. The first stanza contains references to things that can be easily done like 'stop all the clocks '. The second has things that are theoretically possible but a bit harder to do. The poem seems to get less and less realistic as it goes on. The final line, 'For nothing now can ever come to any good ', is quite bleak, showing how the death of his partner has affected the poet. It gives him no good feelings
Blake also uses sound to deliver the meaning to the poem. The poem starts off with "My mother groaned! my father wept." You can hear the sounds that the parents make when their child has entered this world. Instead of joyful sounds like cheer or cries of joy, Blake chooses words that give a meaning that it is not such a good thing that this baby was brought into this world. The mother may groan because of the pain of delivery, but she also groans because she knows about horrible things in this world that the child will have to go through. The father also weeps for the same reason, he knows that the child is no longer in the safety of the womb, but now is in the world to face many trials and tribulations.
In "London", William Blake brings to light a city overrun by poverty and hardship. Blake discards the common, glorifying view of London and replaces it with his idea of truth. London is nothing more but a city strapped by harsh economic times where Royalty and other venues of power have allowed morality and goodness to deteriorate so that suffering and poverty are all that exist. It is with the use of three distinct metaphors; "mind-forg'd manacles", "blackning Church", and "Marriage hearse", that Blake conveys the idea of a city that suffers from physical and psychological imprisonment, social oppression, and an unraveling moral society.
Lights flashing, cameras clicking, and lavish lifestyle – all equal reality television shows? Wrong. Imagine your walk out to your mail box: pajamas, slippers, and a mug of coffee. You grab your newspaper and T.V. Guide to head inside to start your daily routine. This is a real-life situation that would fit within the boundaries of the definition of the word “reality”. No one would click record or devote time in their day to watch someone do something they could personally experience themselves. Yet, chances are the guide you just grabbed somehow contains lists upon lists of differing reality T.V. shows. How is this possible? Reality television stretches the title “reality” just a bit too far as they have been accused of providing scripts, staging and editing “real” life situations, dramatizing and influencing how cast members behave, and promoting unethical values for a monetary gain. Any group or organization, no matter the size or amount of money they wield would be able to take down this multi-billion dollar genre, yet if viewers and producers around the programs would take the shows for what they are, entertainment programs, then it would reduce the amount of deceitfulness surrounding it .
Reality Television has changed television in a way that no one could have imagined. Being the one of the most talked about genre in history, it is seen by millions of viewers. It has more ratings than any other kind of show (Breyer 16). From its start, there have been many Reality Television shows. Shows like The Real World, Survivor, Big Brother, and Jersey Shore. All of these give off a negative portrayal of reality. While Americans watch these shows, it seems that the show is real life, but in reality, no pun intended, before the show is even filmed, it’s written, edited, and produced (Breyer 21). Writers humiliate and degrade people just for the plot of the show, making their private lives public (Breyer 16).
The cruel child laboring of sweeping chimneys in the late 1700s stirred many emotions through William Blake’s poetic work. His two poems both named, The Chimney Sweeper, expressed a creative perspective on children sweeping chimneys. Both the first and second poems contained similar poetic techniques to convey a similar meaning, but also contrasted in poetic techniques to portray different perspectives of children who were forced to endure the risky job.
The beginning line of the poem is, “Can I see another’s woe, and not be in sorrow too?” William Blake first asks whether one can witness another person’s sorrow and not refrain from feeling sorrowful too. William Blake ask the question repeatedly in the first two stanzas before he gives the answer later in the third stanza, “No, never can it