Stylistic Devices To Represent Poverty In London By William Blake
Poverty shows itself throughout our world, our history, and has consistently remained a pressing issue. The issue is a result of many factors and, in some cases, can be a continuous result of a positive feedback loop. Poverty can be derived from predispositions, corruption of authorities, and background; to name a broad few. In the poem “London” written by William Blake, Blake touches on the the socio economic phenomenon through uses of diction, syntax, alliteration, and imagery, but the most stood out stylistic feature that emphasised the true meaning of the poem is tone. Poverty/environmental injustice is a major social problem, which can be both objective as well subjective. Objectively, poverty implies a dehumanizing condition in which people are unable to look after their basic needs. Subjectively poverty stands for perceived deprivation. The impoverished lack the necessary resources and capacity to live under beneficial conditions. They live under difficult conditions that hinder the development of their personal potential.
William Blake's "London" creates a written representation of the English society as a whole, and the human condition in general that outlines the socio-economic problems of the time. It condemns authoritative institutions including the military, royalty, new industries, and the Church. The informative manner of Blake's work creates a tone that conveys a sense of resentment towards the loss of hope created as a result of increasing corruption of the upper class and the resulting suffering. “London” is a poem about contemporary life at the time as it is characterized by certain forces that affect social, intellectual and spiritual life. The city, London, is used to represent these forces, many of which are institutional. Urbanization, mistreatment of the poor, enslavement, abuse of children, exploitation of the environment, rise of the working classes, are part of what Blake is protesting in this poem about the dehumanizing influence of a prevailing commercial and religious ethos that seeks to shape individuals into conformity.
Unlike many other poems that protest such drastic issues; Blake express a sense of distance between the place “London” and the narrator. The poet describes a journey through "each charter'd street" of the city and details the "woe" he observes in every quarter. The poem is similar in content and theme to other Blake poems about the plight of the working classes and reflects his concerns about inequality as demonstrated in the first stanza of the poem. The idea that the narrator might be a tourist comes to mind each time one reads the poem, an observer of the London landscape and its people. The poet did an amazing job describing many tourist things including “I wander thro' each charter'd street, near where the charter'd Thames does flow, ” as shown in the first stanza, the speaker begins by telling us a little story about his trip. He wanders through each "charter'd street" that happens to be "near where the charter'd Thames does flow. " are all things that a tourist would do and will be willing to tell others about it; but in this case, the narrator who is a tourist noticed a strange pattern. Every corner he goes, “In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice: in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear”. Blake’s use of diction such as charter’d, manacles and phrase like “blood down palace walls” are evidence that the locals are unhappy and feels trapped he hinted a sense of danger coming unless theres is a massive change.
The narrator realize his place as a tourist not wanting to say too much or offends anyone. He hinted, hoping someone else would step up and say something, preferably a local. Blake referenced the French revolution of 1789; painting a vivid picture of the streets of London in some ways heartbreaking seeing all the misfortune of people (soldiers) giving up their lives in other to provide food for their families. In the last stanza of the poem, Blake witnessed the young "Harlot" (prostitute) cursing and reprimanding "Blasts" the infant's cries and "tears" at what could be the result of being fatherless or starvation. The soldiers' deaths leaving mothers widowed, turning the joyful occasion of marriage (also personified) into a depressing event “the Marriage hearse”. This stanza has a very different structure to the previous ones. It emphasized the moment when the cycle of misery commences, in the form of a new human being starting life: a baby is born into poverty, to a cursing, prostitute mother. Sexual and marital union the place of possible regeneration and rebirth are tainted by sexual transimmitted disases. Thus the idea of love and desire is perceive with death and destruction. The city of London hasn’t change that much since medieval London to modern day. Its known as the one of the world’s key global cities and a very important international financial centre; and has a different range of people, religion and cultures.
This unique presence of the city attracts plenty of people around the world and in Blake’s “London” if gives a clear perspective of what a city like London has to go through to become an European powerhouse in the expense of the poor and uneducated. Blake protests the notion of environmental injustice in a way that sees the narrator as an outsider, a tourist paying a visit as demonstrated throughout the poem; the speaker wanders through the streets of London like any tourist would do and comments on his observations. He sees sadness in the faces of the people he meets during his trip.
