"London" by William Blake : Translation, Summary, and Analysis

Title: "London"
Author: William Blake
Written: 1794 CE
Themes: 
     -hypocrisy, infidelity
     -commentary of prostitution
     -commentary on the shunning of women

Poem in a nutshell: "I walked the streets of London one night and saw misery all around"

William Blake

Original Text

Modern English Translation

I wander thro' each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow, A mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice; in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear. How the Chimney-sweepers cry Every blackening Church appalls; And the hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls. But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlots curse Blasts the new-born Infants tear, And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse

I stroll through each street,  near the Thames river, and I found expressions of pain and misery on every face that I saw. In every man's woeful cry, In every child’s cry of fear, In every voice, I hear the self-inflicted restraints of the people. How the chimney-sweepers cry, their soot blackening the church walls, And the dying soldier’s blood runs down the walls of the elite. But especially during the midnight hours, in the red district, I hear prostitutes cursing their newborn babies And destruction of marriage.

SUMMARY

Stanza One:

In the first stanza, the speaker is walking through the streets of London, and, everywhere he turns, he sees the downtrodden faces of the poor. They look weak, tired, unhappy, and defeated.

Stanza Two:

In the second stanza, as the speaker continues his travels, he hears the people's voice everywhere. He hears the same pain and suffering in the cry of an infant to that of a grown man. To him, the people and their minds are not free. They are restrained or "manacled" by their various situations--mostly economical. (***Notice the acrostic HEAR in stanza III).

Stanza Three:

In the third stanza, the speaker reflects on and emphasizes how the wealthy or the elite take advantage of the poor. During Blake's time, much money went into the church while children were dying from poverty. Forced to sweep chimneys, the soot from the children's efforts would blacken the walls of the white church. This image symbolizes not only the Church's hypocrisy but the Christian religion (according to Blake). 

Furthermore, during the time frame of the poem, the wealthy/elite/royals were considered responsible for the wars that broke out, resulting in the death of many innocents and soldiers. Because of this, many women were widowed, and, without some one to support them, many families starved. (Remember that women were not in a position to gain many respectable jobs during this era.) Thus, the unfortunate solider's blood is on the hands of the wealthy.

Stanza Four:

In the last stanza, midnight streets is a direct reference to prostitution and the red district. Here, the speaker ruminates on how the young prostitutes' curse--referring to both profanity and her child out of wedlock--their children. Also, the oxymoron of "marriage" (to join) and "hearse" (to depart) suggests the destruction of marriage. Here, men are using prostitutes (who are more than likely children doing a dirty job out of necessity), impregnating them, and then possibly spreading diseases to their wives--thus "marriage hearse." This last stanza drives home the theme of society's moral decay.

What are your thoughts on the poem?