This same harlot-curse, which “blasts” the baby’s tear, also “blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.” … This is why the speaker uses the semi-oxymoronic phrase “marriage Hearse.” We associate marriage with children, life, union. A hearse, obviously, symbolizes death.

What does the marriage hearse mean?

In the first case, “hearse” is a description which interprets Blake’s culture. It refers in general to the deadly condition of marriage, in that marriage, for Blake, is a restrictive institution (deadly, in a spiritual sense) which actually fosters prostitution;8↤ 8 E. D.

Which technique is used in the quotation and blights with plagues the marriage hearse?

And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.” Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, “I wander thro’ each charter’d street”, “How the Chimney-sweepers cry” and “Runs in blood down Palace walls.”

What is the marriage hearse in the poem London?

The “marriage hearse” is an image meant to convey Blake’s feeling that society, with its sexual repression and prostitution, turns marriage into a kind of “hearse” that can lead to the spread of venereal disease to innocent people.

What are the poetic devices used in the poem London?

The structure used in the poem “London” is four quatrains with an ABAB rhyme scheme written in iambic tetrameter. The poetic devices used include alliteration, anaphora, repetition, and paradox. These devices create a somber tone.

How the chimney sweeper's cry meaning?

In this stanza ‘the chimney sweepers cry every blackening church appals’ provide an association which reveals the speakers attitude. The money is spent on churches while the children live in poverty, forced to clean chimneys – the soot from which blackens the church walls.

What technique is marriage hearse?

It “plagues” it, so to speak. This is why the speaker uses the semi-oxymoronic phrase “marriage Hearse.” We associate marriage with children, life, union. A hearse, obviously, symbolizes death.

What was written on the door of Garden of Love?

Over the door, a forbidding message reads “Thou shalt not.” The speaker then looks back over the garden, which used to be full of beautiful flowers. Now, though, the garden is full of graves.

What does mind forged manacles mean?

The poetic phrase “the mind-forged manacles..” is referring to the restraints that we put on what can do, or limitations that we set on ourselves in terms of dreams and goals. And that we do so based on our mindsets, opinions or fears. We impose these things in our own minds.

Was William Blake a romantic poet?

Born 1757 in London, his recognition as an artist and poet of worth began when Blake was in his sixties. … Although Blake struggled to make a living from his work during his lifetime his influence and ideas are possibly the strongest of all the Romantic poets.

Article first time published on

What does Chartered mean in the poem London?

In his London, the streets are “charter’d”, as is the Thames itself. Chartered, meaning chopped, charted and mapped. … His London was a divided city where the faces of the people were marked with “weakness” and “woe”.

What language technique is cry of fear?

Emotive diction. Whilst the speaker observes neutrally, increasingly emotive terms are used to sum up the vision London presents: ‘woe’ becomes ‘cry of fear’, a cry that ‘appalls’, ultimately the ‘curse’ that ‘blasts’ the weeping ‘Infant’

What is the main theme of the poem London?

The overall theme of “London” is that the city is a dark and miserable place. Words like “hapless,” “weakness,” “woe” and “manacles” contribute to that sense of gloom. Even descriptions like “Every blackning Church” and “thro’ midnight streets” quite clearly depict a darkness.

What does Runs in blood down Palace walls mean?

Lines 11 and 12 use the metaphor of the soldier’s blood running down the wall of the palace to show that those in power have blood on their hands for sending so many men into war. The soldier’s ‘hapless sigh’ suggests that he feels powerless to change things.

What symbols and metaphors does Blake use in his poem London to convey his view of Industrialisation?

It can be seen through metaphors in the poem such as “through the chartered street”, “Thames”, and the “chimney sweepers” which shows the sorrow, sadness and suffer at that time.In addition, Blake shows the clear image of children who forced to work as a slave, the soldiers who complained about authorities of the state …

What type of narrator has been used by black in the poem London?

“London” Speaker The poem is written from a first-person perspective, but this “I” is non-specific. Of course, the speaker has a lot in common with William Blake himself.

Why London is a romantic poem?

The poem mourns the appalling conditions that London’s citizens endure—the “marks of weakness, marks of woe” on every face. … Because of its focus on the common man and children, individual human rights, and emotions, “London” is easily recognized as a Romantic poem.

What does every Blackning Church appalls mean?

‘Appals’ in this stanza is a nice word: the Church is literally turned the colour of a pall (black) by the sooty breath of the chimney-sweep, but palls are associated with funerals, summoning the premature deaths of so many children who died from injury or ill-health while performing the job of a chimney-sweep.

Is London by William Blake a sonnet?

While William Blake’s poem “London” consists of four stanzas which contain a cross rhyme throughout the whole work, William Wordsworth’s “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” has the form of a Petrarchan sonnet. This kind of sonnet consists of an octave and a sestet.

What does blackening church mean?

The churches themselves are “blackened” by soot from industry, hence they too are literally becoming black. The word “appalls” works on just about a hundred levels. It means to horrify or to shock, like saying something is ‘appalling’.

What does hapless soldier mean?

The use of the soldiers creates an imagery of war. The “hapless soldier’s sigh” symbolize how men are drafted into war and have no choice but to serve their country.

Who is Tom Dacre?

Who is Tom Dacre ? What does he represent ? Ans:- Tom Dacre was a chimney sweeper as the speaker of the poem. He represents the innocence of the little chimney sweepers who were forced to work in inhuman conditions.

What does the word charter D mean?

Charter’d or Chartered, refers to a Charter, established by the Crown (the poem is about London). A Charter is the constitution of a city and spells out how the city is to be governed and organized.

What does hapless mean in the poem London?

Now he tells us that there’s a “hapless” (i.e., unfortunate) soldier, whose “sigh / Runs in blood down Palace walls.” Well, cool. We didn’t know sighs could actually run down walls in the form of blood.

Whats the meaning of manacles?

1 : a shackle for the hand or wrist : handcuff —usually used in plural. 2 : something used as a restraint. manacle. verb.

What does binding with briars mean?

Those lines represent a clear critique addressed to the church and their practices regarding religious beliefs. What’s even more, is that the lyrical I accuses the church of “binding with briars my joys & desires”, meaning not allowing the lyrical I to be happy but rather putting pressure on it.

What is the Garden of Love a metaphor for?

METAPHOR – The title itself is metaphoric as it is an allusion to the Garden of Eden, a time when humans truly understood the meaning of love and innocence. The chapel in the midst of the garden implies that the church and religious dogma are preventing humanity’s return to the Edenic state.

What is theme of the poem?

Theme is the lesson or message of the poem.

What is Blake trying to say?

Blake wants us to reconnect to the wonders of nature, to experience awe in the face of God’s creation. All creatures, whether fearsome predators like the tiger or gentle creatures like the lamb, share the same creator, as indeed do we.

What kind of poet is William Blake?

William BlakeOccupationPoet painter printmakerGenreVisionary, poetryLiterary movementRomanticismNotable worksSongs of Innocence and of Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The Four Zoas, Jerusalem, Milton, “And did those feet in ancient time”

Is John Milton a romantic poet?

The inaugurating figure of Romanticism is John Milton. … As much as Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes are defining poems of British Romanticism, of the three, Paradise Regained is the most strikingly so.