London

Question 1

“I wander thro’ each charter’d street”

Answer 1

• “charter’d”, the place is being mapped, showin his complaint on urbanisation
• repetition
• everything in the city is owned by the rich, making the poor poorer

Question 2

“the mind-forg’d manacles I hear

Answer 2

• metaphor
• alliteration, links to the idea of it being memorable
• “manacles”, we have imprisoned our minds into thinking that the poor will always stay poor
• “forg’d”, shows that our beliefs on the social hierarchy are a fake way of looking at the world

Question 3

why is the poem in a simplistic form

Answer 3

• Blake attempts to write a protest poem that is so memorable that even children can remember it

Question 4

“every blackening church appals”

Answer 4

• “blackening”, literal point, child chimney sweepers are dying from inhaling soot
• “blackening”, metaphorical meaning, the church is corrupt and does nothing to help the poor
• “appalls”, pun, refers to a pall which is placed over a coffin, the church is dead

Question 5

“runs in blood down palace walls”

Answer 5

• referencing the French revolution, what happened then is very likely to happen now
• suggests the poor will rise up and kill the monarchy if they do not change their ways

Question 6

“and blights with plagues the marriage hearse”

Answer 6

• attack on the patriarchy
• “plague”, men are having sex with prostitutes that carry diseases which ends up destroying their marriage “hearse”