The Use Of Language And Structure In 'London' By William Blake
'London' by William Blake is a poem written in the late 18th century. This was when the Industrial Revolution had just begun. On a literal level, the poem regards the persona and also writer walking around the streets of London and communicating all the horrible things he sees and hears through this poem. On a metaphorical level, the poem discusses how London has changed and is converting into this undesirable city in which the governing bodies have the blood of innocent people on their hands. Blake uses language and structure to present London by using iambic tetrameter which gives the poem rhythm, metaphoric juxtapositions to show the contrast between two opposite things and negative Lexis to emphasise all the horrible things that are going on in London.
Blake aims to show that all the streets and all the free things are now controlled by the Government and Church. This is shown by his use of the iambic tetrameter in the beginning of the poem, 'I wander through each charter'd street. Near where the charter'd Thames does flow. ' Through the repeated use of the word 'charter'd', he wants to stress that even the river that is meant to flow freely through the town is held back and is charted out by the government. Streets being 'charter'd' means that they know what everyone is doing at any period in time and they know where everyone is. This limits people's freedom but like the river when it finds the sea, people find another way to cope with it. This links to language and structure through the use of rhythm (which can be interpreted as a quatrain of the iambic tetrameter) which could also be interpreted as Blakes echoing footsteps as he 'wanders' through London.
Furthermore, Blake wants to depict how much people are suffering and how people deal with that suffering. This is strongly carried on in the metaphoric juxtaposition 'youthful Harlot's curse'. The adjective 'youthful' could mean innocent but when placed next to the word Harlot the connotations created are different. In the poem, the word Harlot is used to describe a prostitute which is described to be in desperate need of money and young in age. In this context, the word 'curse' could have a dual meaning. One way in which the reader can interpret the meaning of the word is as a way to make the Harlot suffer for having to turn to this type of job to make money.
On the other hand, the word 'curse' could mean an offensive word used by someone when they are annoyed. In the poem, Blake is portraying the Harlot as having been cursed and as using offensive language to take out the anger and sadness she feels. The words 'youthful' and 'Harlot' are juxtaposed meaning that they are two contrasting words put together so the reader can understand how little girls were coping back then. This links back to the language and structure through the use of the juxtaposition which shows how young are losing their innocence. Moreover, Blake considers London to be a place of misery and disruption. We see this through his use of negative Lexis, ' Every blackning Church appals'. Blake is trying to say that he the Church due to the Industrial Revolution is blackening and darkening. In other words, it has stopped caring about the orphans on the street and is slowing losing its purity. It is also becoming corrupt since it does nothing for the unjust treating of Chimney sweepers and the blood of the innocent that is being spilt on the walls of the people in power. Furthermore the adjective 'blacking' suggests that due to the soot from the factories the Church is getting darker on the outside. This is also a juxtaposition since the Church is sometimes seen as a shining beacon of hope for some people but in this case, it is seen as the exact opposite, something that you should not have faith in because it will turn its back on you, it will darken and blacken until nobody has any faith left. This links back to the use of language and structure since Blake is using negative Lexis such as 'blackning Church' since the word 'blackning' doesn't exactly have connotations. Something black is usually something sad and doesn't describe something in a good way.
The title of the poem 'London' has great significance because it is very vague and therefore doesn't specify what the poet will be talking about. This means that the poet, in this case, Blake will not have to limit what he talks about to one or two topics. The variety of topics the titles opens up is huge so Blake can choose which ones are more personal and can include those in his poem.
This poem belongs to the collection 'Songs of Experience' as young people are losing their innocence and the Church and governments are becoming corrupt. Blake uses and structure to present London through the use of iambic tetrameter and rhythm which gives the poem a flow and stresses on the important stanzas and verses, juxtapositions to show how for example young girls are losing their innocence and how the negative lexis describes the misery and destruction that clouds London.
