In the poem "London", Blake describes the scene he saw when he wandered through the streets of London and comments on his observations. At the time, Britain had been capitalism for centuries, and the society became more decayed as the time past. This poem is noticeably religious and political. I am going to analyze the whole poem, and throughout the process, I will illustrate how is each important to understanding how this poem works.
In the first two lines, "I wander thro' each charter'd street, near where the charter'd Thames does flow" (Blake, "London" 1). The word "chartered" means that a street or a river was owned by rich people and nobles only instead of common people. A word reveals a political class oppression and a hierarchical society that people were divided into several levels and not every individual had the equal rights. It suggests the oppressive nature of early capitalism. Moreover, this repetition of this word reinforces a sense of grade and structure how the writer felt upon entering the city. Then the repetition of three "marks" depicts the weakness and woe shown in people's face, and it reflects the suffocating atmosphere of the city. However, the form of words changes among the repetition form a verb to nouns-from an action of noticing that leaves some space for imagination to indelible imprint that brands the people's bodies regardless of the writer's action. It implies the writer's dissatisfaction to the political party, but he was incapable of changing this situation.
In the second verse, Blake uses five "every" in three lines to show that he saw the despair in the faces of the people he met and heard fear in their voices. The repetition emphasize the fact that this suffering is not only affecting a group of people but everybody, and no one could escape from the miserable and tragic reality. The fourth line "the mind-forg'd manacles I hear" indicates that the mental suppression was much more powerful than material chains could ever be.
