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Help with English lit poem!!

Can anybody help me with the poem London, by William Blake? I wasn’t in school the day that my class covered this poem, so my overall knowledge is pretty weak. Just an explanation and link to other poems in the power and conflict cluster will help. Thanks!!

Reply 1

EstelOfTheEyrie

Original post by alishaalo

Hi,

London is a poem in William Blake's songs of innocence and Experience. It is shown in the Experience section of the anthology - which are overall more melancholic and reflecting negatively on society.

So the overall theme of the poem is the entrapment of both society and nature - given how the Thames is 'chart'd' as if marked and cemented in place, and society through the different effects of people mentioned ('the harlot', 'hapless soldiers')

this will link into the immediate context of the poem, as the aftermath of the French Revolution was recent (it began in 1789, and the poem was published in 1794 - the beginning of the Terror.) There was a real threat of revolution in England at that point - shown in the poem by the blood that "runs... down Palace walls'.

I hope this at least gives you a place to start :smile: