William Blake wrote a lot about the downsides to living in London in his time. He wrote a poem entitled London about it, which is a phenomenal Gothic/Romantic poem. It is a Gothic poem because of its dark view and joyless feeling. It is also a Romantic poem however, because it introduced the negative idea of London to literature and uses the nature of the surroundings to describe it. Had he illustrated this poem, as he did many others, it would depict a dark dingy atmosphere very fitting for the Gothic scene.
The first stanza the Romantic in the poem already shows. He speaks of the river Thames and the mapped out streets. He speaks of the misery in the people’s faces he sees. This is already a clue into the idea that London is a very miserable place to be. He sets up for a morbid setting right from the beginning to signify the woe.
The next stanza is much deeper than the first. He speaks of the people crying in pain. He also says the infants’ cry in fear. The fear can symbolize the poverty and unseemliness of the area. The fear and crying can also be from oppression of the government. This was a time of monarchy, which meant that one person ruled all and no individual had any say. The final line of the stanza “The mind forg’d manacles I hear.” (London, line 8) is very powerful as well. This means that people are masochists. That the only reason they are oppressed is because they will not fight back. A monarchy is a very unstable subject and Blake seems to believe that it can be broken if people were to make an effort.
The third stanza reads as though a war is in effect. The poor are crying only because they must fight. Those who have less to live for are always the first to be drafted for war, which in no way seems fair. It says how the church, religion, would strongly disagree with third as well. The final two lines of this stanza are as follows, “And the hapless Soldier’s sigh runs in blood down palace walls.” (London, lines 11-12) This signifies that there is loss of many soldiers and death surrounding the town everywhere. It is so powerful because of the way he depicts literally blood dripping over the ruler’s palace. This would be because it is the ruler’s fault that blood is even being shed.
The final stanza wraps things up in a deathly manner as well. He describes beautiful women being cursed and blasts of babies crying. The blast would symbolize gunshot, and the baby’s tear could even be his last. It shows that innocents die during wars in which people protest. “And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.” (London, line 16)This is the final line of the poem. It uses the term marriage hearse because of all the marriage broken by the death. Women would lose their husbands to war and would be widowed at a very young age.
This poem is a very morbid, depressing view of London during a time of war. It is very beautifully written and the symbolism used is amazing. It draws the reader in with the words used and the flow of the writing. William Blake was a very talented writer of the Romantic and the Gothic.
Works Cited
The Norton Anthology: English Literature. New York: Norton Company, 2006. Print.