Poem Blog 5

"London" by William Blake

Everything I envision about London in the 18th and 19th centuries is captured in this poem. London was a dark place, riddled with disease and immorality. The speaker in this poem does not see one thing that is positive. He goes from bad to worse. The narrator speaks of someone crying out three times in the poem, which gives the impression that every corner he turns, there is human suffering. I also thought it was interesting that he said the "Harlot's curse" plagued the "Marriage hearse". This implies that the marriage was never all that happy to begin with, if the Harlot is damaging something from a hearse. He speaks of the blood from the palace walls, which seems to be alluding to the aristcratic takeover of the poor in society. They were the ones who were sacrificed for the good of the elites. This also added to the downward spiral of society, because the classes were so divided. The people could not work in unity to bring about a change, because they were so appalled by each other.