William Blake was both a poet and an artist. Creating plates using a technique called "relief etching," Blake\'s published volumes created an integral and mutually enlightening combination of words and design.

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London (1794)

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     I wander thro' each charter'd street,
     Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
     And mark in every face I meet
     Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

5     In every cry of every man,
     In every Infant's cry of fear,
     In every voice, in every ban,
     The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.
     How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
10     Every blackning Church appalls;
     And the hapless Soldier's sigh
     Runs in blood down Palace walls.

     But most thro' midnight streets I hear
     How the youthful Harlot's curse
15     Blasts the new-born Infant's tear,
     And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

Editor´s Comments

More often than we might think, we're asked to be aware of two things at once when we read a poem. Sometimes our experience of the poem is so entangled with something other than just the literal words on the page that the two can hardly be separated. For example, music. When we listen to a lyric like "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love," or a ballad like "Sir Patrick Spens," the music works on our emotions, preparing us to hear the poetry in a certain way. But the "something else" doesn't have to be music, it can be words. When one of Chaucer's pilgrims tells a tale, we may listen with a skeptical ear, if we remember that elsewhere Chaucer has described this character as a scoundrel and a rogue. We hear things in the story that we might not have heard otherwise. Sometimes poems answer other poems, and once again, we hear one voice behind another as we listen.

For Blake, of course, the something else is art. After you read the plain text of Blake's poem "London," click on the title and you'll see Blake's own illuminated version of the poem. The old man on crutches, being led through a narrow shaft of light dominates the page, but then as you begin to read the poem, you find yourself reading down past a bonfire, where a small figure, a homeless boy perhaps, crouches, warming his hands. The bonfire seems to force its way into the space of the poem; dark smoke billows up, curling around the word "woe" that ends the first stanza. Blake is not unique in this: even just dedicating a poem to someone can have the effect of framing the poem, asking us to read it with something else in mind. Blake puts his images into the reader's field of vision quite literally though, and we can't look away. The Palace, the Church, the Harlot's cry all seem to have something to do with the bonfire, and the cold hands of that little boy.

Text History

A notebook sketch by Blake of the motif of an old man with a crutch being led by a boy, which appears in the final version of "London."

Manuscript version of "London," in Blake's notebook.

Transcript of the manuscript version of "London."

Historical Considerations

Blake's view of the city was complex. London could be a place of honest work, where merchants and artisans were able to stand up as citizens, defending their rights against tyrannical authority. But citizens might be corrupted by the profits of war. As an imperial center, and an armory of war, London also had a dark side for Blake. Even though London was not really a factory town, he saw in it an emblem for the emerging Industrial Revolution's polluting of the English land and oppression of the common people. He was powerfully influenced by the French and American revolutions, and his critique of the new modernity was a comprehensive one, ranging from imperialist government, to industry, to the social relations of everyday life.

Click here to read a discussion that ties the language of "London" to Blake's political and cultural context: E. P. Thompson, "London."

Click here for a contrasting discussion, one that reaffirms "London" as a thoroughly political poem: John Brenkman, from Culture and Domination.

Blake was hardly the only critic of English society in the eighteenth century, but his distinctive stance becomes clearer when his work is contrasted with that of other artists. Compare Blake's "London" to this famous engraving by William Hogarth (1697-1764), who exposes the degradations of London life by employing satire to focus on just one issue, the scourge of drunkenness among the working classes.

To see Hogarth's Gin Lane (1751), click here.

The Poet´s Life and Work

Biography

• The Early Years
• Marriage
• Artistic Struggle

The Poet's Craft

• Illuminated Printing and Songs of Innocence and of Experience
• Prophetic Writings
• Blake's Legacy

Critical Essays

• John Brenkman, from Culture and Domination.
• Heather Glen, from Vision and Disenchantment: Blake's Songs and Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads.
• E. P. Thompson, "London."

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