London

London Poetry Assignment In William Blake’s poem "London", the speaker conveys London as corrupt and corrupting . The speaker presents his image of London through his many "wander[ings]" through its streets. He notes the despair of "every" Londoner and their oppression by the "church" and the state. In everyone the speaker passes he sees signs of misery and moral weakness. In fact, the speaker is one of the oppressed and exploited Londoners and he conveys his moral indignation through diction and metaphor. That power of diction is achieved in good part through repetition. Notice how 'charter'd' appears twice, 'mark' three times and 'every' a total of seven times. Coupled with the repeated use of 'and' gives an atmosphere of distinct oppression to the poem. 'London' singles out the Church for their part in this oppression. " Every face I meet" and " marks of weakness, marks of woe" shows that different societal groups are singled out to show how they were controlled. Also the use of the word "every" through out the poem shows that corruption has affected everyone from infant to elder. By using the word "how" at the beginning of the third stanza the speaker acquires an speaker, poem, through, london, church, out, oppression, moral, everyone, every, word, weakness, times, state, society, shows, prostitute, people, part, marks, londoners, life, image, gives, diction, death, conveys, because, young, woe, william, wander[ings], viewpoint, victims, using