Comparison of London by William Blake and Westminster Bridge.

Comparison of London by William Blake and Westminster Bridge.

"I wander thro' each chartered street," this is William Blake, walking

slowly, almost lost, taking notice of everything he sees around him.

By 'chartered' William Blake can mean two different things, he can

mean wealthy and prosperous or he can mean streets that are chartered

/ charted on a map, this is better explained in the next line where he

speaks of the 'chartered' Thames, giving us the impression that he is

in fact speaking of the chartered / charted meaning.

"Near where the chartered Thames does flow," the second line of the

first verse sheds some more light on where William Blake actually is,

he is on the 'streets' by the Thames -London. As London was quite

small he is probably talking about the whole of London, not just a

certain part.

"And mark in every face I meet,

marks of weakness, marks of woe,"

By weakness William Blake again mean two things, he can mean physical

weakness resulting from starvation or hunger and the work they have

done, he can also mean mental weakness, lack of hope or happiness and

maybe lack of intelligence, as many people in those times in the

poor/working class areas may not have gone to school. By 'woe' Blake

can mean anguish and despair. Altogether William Blake states that all

the people he meets are glum and/or sad.

"In every cry of every man,

In every infants cry of fear

In every voice, in every ban

The mind-forged manacles I hear"

This is the second of four verses, and it describes what William Blake

'hears' as he 'wanders thro' each chartered street.' He states that in

every mans cry, in every infants cry, in every voice and every sign he

can see the limits set to the people by themselves in the mind and the

lack of hope. The limits and lack of hope, I think, stem from the

mental 'weakness' described in the first verse.

"How the chimney-sweepers cry

Every blackening church appals."

I think that these two opening lines of the third verse have a lot of

meaning. Chimney-sweepers were often young children who were forced to

climb up/down chimneys to clean them. They often worked long hours and

received little pay. Then William Blake mentions the 'blackening

church' - a church is almost like a sanctuary for most people, but for

the chimney-sweepers, there is no rest or sanctuary, no place to

forget about there troubles, even the church needs to be cleaned, a

place of purity is tainted and blackened ant the work goes on for the

chimney-sweepers.

"And the hapless soldiers cry