London: Themes & Linking Poems

London: Key Quotes

“I wander thro’ each charter’d street” - This quote presents London as a city that is heavily regulated and controlled.
“In every cry of every Man” / “In every Infant’s cry of fear” - Repetition of ‘every’ emphasizes the universality of suffering in London.
“mind-forg’d manacles” - The metaphor suggests that societal and mental restrictions are as real and damaging as physical chains.
“Runs in blood down Palace walls” – Metaphorical imagery hints at the violence and injustice perpetuated by those in power.

William Blake was a Romantic poet, and his work reflects the movement’s emphasis on individual experience, the power of nature, and the corruption of society by industrialisation.
Songs of Innocence and Experience was published in 1794 during the early Industrial Revolution. The misery and exploitation caused by industrialization in London influenced much of Blake’s writing.
Blake was a political radical and religious visionary; his work, including “London”, often criticises the institutions he perceived as oppressive - the Church, the Monarchy, and the ruling class.
Blake challenges the traditional Christian idea of innocence being pure and experience being sinful, instead suggesting that ‘experience’ is a result of the societal suppression of ‘innocence’.