Essay Database

William Blake's "London" (1794) manifests the recognizable Romantic contempt and derision for a class-based, industrially driven society that relentlessly experiences the horror of oppression, injustice, hypocrisy, and child labor. This literary piece also captures the Romantic emphasis on the fact that nature is being manipulated by the industry, which is one of the impacts of the Industrial Revolution. The speaker describes the Thames River, a symbol of nature, as being "chartered" or artificially channeled. The description …

…mind-forg'd manacles..." have a first-syllable alliteration, which makes it heavy and difficult to pronounce by trapping the tongue, just as the "manacles" or handcuffs trap the human mind; this also represents the restraints placed on the individual as a member of a repressive society. "London" is a particularly good example of the typical song of experience; portraying qualities such as dramatic passion and anger, complex symbols and appealing to experience, a darker knowledge of evil.