Friday, May 27, 2011

Rhyme Verse Form Poem: London

W
illiam Blake (1757-1827) was born on November 28th 1757 at 28 broad street (now Broadwick St) in the Soho district of London. His father, James Blake was a hosier and his mother, Catherine Wright Armitage Blake. He was visionary poet and artist, earned his living as an engraver. Blake showed talent as a poet and artist in his childhood, writing the earliest of the Poetical Sketches at age twelve and studying drawing at age ten. Although he lived and worked in relative obscurity, Blake is recognized as one of the great English poets. He died on August 12th 1827. One of his poem is London. The following is the analysis of the poem.



LONDON
By William Blake (1757-1827)

I wander through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every man,
In every infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear.

How the chimney-sweeper’s cry
Every black’ning church appalls;
And the hapless soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down palace walls.

But most through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot’s curse
Blasts the new born infant’s tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.

1.  The Rhyme Scheme
     This poem consists of sixteen lines which are separated into four stanzas with a rhyming ABAB pattern.
2.  Stanza form
     This poem was written into four Quatrain stanzas
3.  Rhythm
     The kinds of poetic feet is Iambic tetrameter because it consists of 1 unaccented followed by 1 accented syllable and 4 feet. Most of the lines are Iambic.
4.  Repetition
     There are some words repeated in this poem, such as chartered, mark, every. The repetitive use of word ‘chartered’ stresses the political times and feeling towards the ruling classes with their controlling laws and oppressive ways. It is not only every street they want to control but even the River Thames which should normally be free for all but in this case it too is chartered. Then, there is repetition on the word “marks” which emphasizes on the despair and tiredness of people especially for the common people. Blake uses the expression of marks of weakness, marks of woe, when he walks that he can see the weakness and misery marked on the faces of the passers. Last but not least, the repetition of “every” on the first three verses to emphasize the feeling of being imprisoned and trapped.
5.  Allusion
     The word of “chartered” may be an ironic allusion to Rule Britannia.
6.  Connotative meaning
     Most of the words used in the poem have connotative meaning. The word ‘ban” reveals how people were unable to voice their criticisms on how the country was being ruled. No one dared to speak out because of fear of being imprisoned. The word “mind-forged manacles” describes people who are suffering and frightened and their feelings are imprisoned in their own minds. Next, the chimney sweeper’s cry shows proletarian’ life of hardship and poverty. Blackening church shows the drop in religious faith among people. The church should bring light to its people, but it ignored the destitute children cry. “The hapless soldier’s sigh” represent the dictatorship of government and ruling authorities who use the helpless poor soldiers for their cruel decisions. “Runs in blood down Palace walls” means that the soldiers had to serve in the army under difficult conditions.  But most through midnight streets I hear and how the youthful Harlot’s curse show the night life of proletarian in which young girl who is out in the darkness had to resort to prostitution because of poverty and her curses heard for what she has to be put through. Blasts the new born infant’s tear, the powerful word “blast” which is a contrast to the gentleness one would use for a new born child due to the mother’s grief.  Finally, and blights with plagues the marriage hearse, Blake shows that the rich man who might use the services of prostitute and then pass on disease to their wives, so the carriage might turn out to be a hearse.
7.  Symbol and allegory
     a.  Every symbolizes the disappointment and depression spread in the society
     b.  Manacles symbolizes the forbidden to speak out and act freely
     c.  Chimney sweeper symbolizes poverty
     d.  “Youth Harlot’s curse” and “new born infant tear “symbolizes the wrong activities of current generation can ruin the future of coming generations.
     e.  Hearse symbolizes epidemic disease which leads to death.
8.  Tone
     The tone is sorrowful, miserable.
9.  Time and Place setting
     Blake wrote and published this poem in 1792 in London. When he wrote this poem, London underwent transformation into industrial revolution. Unmanageable growth population of invasion by hordes of workers who created new problems-dates for London occurred. The labors were paid cheaper because most of the works were replaced by machine. So, the people earned lower income. Meanwhile, the owner of the industry got higher profit. The discrepancy between the rich and the poor was conspicuous.
10. Theme
     The theme is humanity, discrepancy between the poor and the rich and criticism to the ruling class, exploitation.
11. Message
     People should send the poor people our hands.
12. Comments
     This poem is more suitable for senior high school students because the students have to understand some words carefully due to connotative meaning. Besides, the structured of the poem consist of many noun phrases which are not simple. The use of adjective clause is applied in this poem. The students should have content schemata about the history in London when the poem was written, in order to comprehend the whole meaning of this poem.

Analyzed by T. Rantining Lestari and Lilis Sholihah
Picture by www.google.com

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