Appreciation for London by William Blake

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Appreciation for London by William Blake

The first stanza of the poem London opens with the image of Blake as

he wanders “thro' each charter'd street”. Blake selected the word

“charter'd” to convey various images in the readers mind. The

immediate image the audience will visualize is that the streets of

London were mapped out. However, on further examination the reader

can determine that Blake had another meaning for the word. The word

charter is also a document bestowing certain rights on a town or

city. A perspective that the reader could adopt is the word is

suggesting a proud independence of a city.

Repetition is one of the most significant features that Blake uses in

the poem. Blake’s repetition is domineering, this is used too

emphasise the aims and images that Blake is trying to express to his

audience.

Blake repeats the word “mark” twice in the second stanza to express

different meanings to the audience. The first “mark” is a simple

meaning of to notice. However “marks of weakens, marks of woe” are

physical signs of the suffering that Blake can see in ...

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