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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
An analysis of the imagery in Blake's London, with particular reference to his social commentary as exemplified in the poem. Bibliography lists 2 sources
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLblakepoe.rtf
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describes a nightmarish and oppressive urban landscape, in which industrialisation and mechanisation coupled with the overwhelming power of the capitalist system have combined to deprive human beings of their self-respect,
their individuality and their sense of individual value. Throughout the poem, the imagery echoes the concepts of darkness, hopelessness and despair.
At the beginning of the poem he describes not on the streets but the river itself as
"chartered", in the sense of being used for business purposes: the word refers to the ownership of something by a corporation, and shows that even nature, as represented by the
waterways, has become a slave to the human imposition of industry. He then comments in more general terms on the weakness, woe and fear which he encounters in both adults
and children: "man" and "infant" alike cry out. One
could consider the pivotal line of the poem as the "mind-forged manacles", referring to the physical and socio-economic chains which bind the working classes. As Moore (2003) points out, the
emphasis on "mind-forged" shows that these are mental attitudes rather than physical chains, but their effect on human freedom is the same. Blake goes on to cite more specific examples
of this imprisonment: the chimney-sweeps, for example. In this period, sweeps were almost invariably children, since they were the only ones small enough to negotiate the narrow, labyrinthine chimney in
large houses: there was no protection for child workers, or regulations regarding the use of child labour, and the rate of death and injury was high. Since London was full
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