Formalism has advantage of forcing writers to evaluate a work on its own terms ratherto relay on “accepted” notions of writer

work. Focus on
Form, organization, structure, Word choice, multiple languageHistorical Prospects:There is no one school of Formalism, and the term groups
together a number of differentapproaches to literature, many of which seriously diverge from one another. Formalism,in the broadest sense,
was the dominant mode of academic literary study in the UnitedStates and United Kingdom from the end of the Second World War through the
1970s,and particularly the Formalism of the "New Critics," including, among others, I.A.Richards, John Crowe Ransom and T.S Eliot. On the
European continent, Formalismemerged primarily and particularly out of the work of Roman Jackobson, BorisEichenbaum, and Viktor
Shklovsky. Although the theories Roman Jackobson of andNew Criticism are similar in a number of respects, the two schools largely
developed inisolation from one another, and should not be conflated or considered identical. Inreality, even many of the theories proposed by
critics working within their respectiveschools often diverged from one another.Russian Formalism New CriticismRussian Formalism :Russian
Formalism refers primarily to the work of the Society for the Study of PoeticLanguage founded in 1916 in St. Petersburg by Boris Eichenbaum,
Viktor Shklovsky,and Yury Tynyanov, and secondarily to the Moscow Linguistic Circle founded in 1914by Roman Jackobson. Russian
Formalists interested in the analysis of the text but theirmain concern was with method as the scientific basis for literary theory. There was
thus a shift away from the moral approach to literature towards a scientific approach.Phases:1) 1915-1920 in Russia (‘pure’ formalism)2)
1921-1930 movement towards Czechoslovakia and Poland under pressure fromMarxism/Stalinism → emergence of structuralism

Milton’s eye sight was weak from his early youth. In a prose pamphlet, he describes, “I never extinguished my lamp before midnight” and
points his ultimate blindness to the strain put upon his eyes. In the verses of Wood who knew Milton very well: “It was unusual with him to sit
up till midnight at his books, which was the first thing that brought his eyes into the danger of blindness.” 

The exact date of composition of the sonnet can’t be ascertained. Milton became completely blind in 1652. Stopford Brooke is of this opinion-
He says that this sonnet was written 20 years after his first sonnet, which was written in 1632, which implies that it was writer somewhere
after his blindness in 1652. This sonnet was first published in 1673.

Keynote: In this sonnet there is an undertone of despondency, even a sense of impatience though Milton checks himself from any impious
thought. This sonnet records the first shock of Milton’s blindness.

The Substance and Critical Appreciation:

Milton regrets that he has lost his eye-sight even before reaching the middle age. He is afraid that because of his blindness he cannot serve
God by using his poetic talent, though he is eager to make the right and proper use of it. He fears that God may punish him for failing to
serve Him by using his God-given gift of writing poetry. When such fears trouble him, for a moment his soul is disturbed by questioning the
justice of God. But at once the religious conscience quiets his soul. He realizes that God doesn’t care for the service of man; nor does He
care if His gifts are used or not. He is the King of kings and He had thousands of angels serving Him day and night, over earth and sea.
Service to God consists not only in active work but also in patient resignation to His will and dispensation.

Lines 1-8:
Milton gets rather impatient at the thought of his blindness. He is blind in the middle age. Blindness prevents him from using his poetic talent
by writing something great to glorify God. He has a keen desire to serve God by using his poetic talent, because he knows that God wants
man to use his God-given power or he may be punished. In an impatient mood Milton doubts if God would be just in demanding work from a
blind man like him.

Lines 8-14:
Milton’s attitude of doubt passes off in a moment. His inner conscience rises up with its faith in God’s justice. He realizes that God does not
need man’s work by way of service to him; nor does he care whether man uses His gifts. He is the King of kings; His dominion is over the
universe. He has thousands of angels doing His biddings at all times flying over land and sea. He has thousands of others who stand by His
throne and sing His praise. The latter too are as good as beloved as the active angels. So, patient submission to His will is the best service to
Him.

But Patience, to prevent – The Heart of the Sonnet

For a moment, and only for a moment, Milton is perturbed at the thought that God may punish him for not using his poetic gift rightly in doing
something great in His service. He doubts God’s justice and wisdom. But the next moment his inner sense of resignation to the Divine will
pulls him up. He at once realizes that God does not care for the active service of man, nor does He take back the gifts bestowed on man, if
man cannot use them for adequate reason. God is neither so thoughtless nor so poor. Milton realizes that service to God consists in patient
submission to His will; those who uncomplainingly take the afflictions of God as His measure for correcting and improving them and thus
resign themselves fully to His all-wise and all-just providence, are His true servants.
By unanimous consent 'On His Blindness' is Milton’s best sonnet in which English poetic art attains a sublime height. ‘Actually it is not a mere
poem. It is the inner voice of a man who has resigned himself entirely to the will of God and depends only on His mercy and justice. This
sonnet bears Italian structure. It proves clearly that Milton’s faith in God is unshakeable. It is a sonnet which touches the poet’s personally.
The sonnet tells us that Milton became blind when he had run only half the race of his life. He was only 44 when he became totally blind. He
was broken down with grief, disappointment and despair. His only hope was his faith in the mercy, kindness and justice of God. The poem
gives us a glimpse of Milton’s philosophy of life. The sonnet is replete with abundant pathos. It reflects the personal grief and despair of a
poet of Milton’s eminence. The poet was known to possess a noble and lofty character and his conduct was akin to his nature and
temperament. He therefore does not lose heart or weep like an ordinary man. He endures suffering with fortitude and bears the loss of his
eyesight in a courageous and manly way. Incidentally, this sonnet solves an age-old question. The problem is, does God require the service
of man? Milton employs patience to solve this riddle. The answer is that those who resign themselves unquestioningly to the will and wishes
of God are his best servants. This idea is repeated with ample emphasis twice in this sonnet. Like the outstanding characteristic of all great
and good poetry, this sonnet has a universal appeal, far from being a mere poem. It is barely a divine message of the afflicted people of the
world, to mankind as whole, that has unbounded faith in God’s mercy and generosity. The poem is rich in noble ideas, sublime thoughts and
unbounded bliss. It raises Milton very high in public estimation and makes him immortal. Milton has used two very effective poetic devices in
this poem: allegory and personification. An allegory is a story in which events and characters stand for some other situation and people. In
this poem the poet persona “I” may represent all the human beings having eyes spiritually in darkness. Personification on the other hand is a
technique in which abstract concepts and qualities such as love, hatred, and jealousy are represented as person. In this sonnet Milton has
personified ‘patience’ which speaks to him and rescues him from his dilemma. If we look at the form of this sonnet, we shall find it different
from the Shakespearian or Italian sonnet. The rhyme scheme is abba abba cde cde but the division between sestet and the octave is not
neat as in an Italian sonnet. The sentence of the sestet begins in the line of the octave itself

In On His Blindness, Milton is struggling to understand what God expects of him now that he is losing his sight. He's upset about wasting
'that one Talent which is death to hide' (line 3), which is a biblical reference to the parable of the talents (Matthew 25: 14-30), in which two
people invest their talents (in the story, 'talents' are money), while another just hides his talent in a hole and is punished. Milton feels that God
expects him to use his talent for writing poetry in a way that honors Him.

Milton is frustrated that his lack of sight is preventing him from serving God when he wants to so badly:

...Though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account... (lines 4-6)

Milton's 'true account' refers to his religious poetry. Much of his poetry was concerned with God's relationship to mankind and he considered
it a serious duty to write poetry that simultaneously made God's mysterious ways more clear to people and honored God with its craft.

At line 7, Milton wonders if God still expects him to keep writing without his sight, then decides that God is more forgiving than he was giving
him credit for, Surely, knowing of his condition and strong desire to please Him, God wouldn't expect anything that he couldn't possibly
accomplish, nor would he punish him.

The last half of the poem has a calmer tone. It's almost like Milton realizes that while he's writing that people can serve God in many different
ways. It's the intent and the grace with which one deals with hardship that counts:

Who best 
Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best.

Within 14 lines, Milton has depicted a wavering, then regaining of faith.

In his famous poem “When I Consider How My Light is Spent”, Milton writes about his increasing blindness and questions his God as to why
this happened to him and how it is possible to serve Him by being thus. In this 17th Century poem the main poetic devices are the following:
prosody, situational irony, and tone.

Prosody is used throughout. Milton has a unified rhyme schemeabba-cddc-efg0efg. Under further observation, the reader may notice that the
last word of each stanza rhymes with the first of the next: spent, present, need, and speed. Milton also uses the standard poetry form of his
time – the sonnet (which consists of fourteen lines). The character of the poem is the poet himself.
The situational irony of “When I Consider” is that Milton knows that he is talented, but doesn’t know how to deal with it: “And that talent which
is death to hide” (line 3). It is ironic because here is a man who is incredibly talented, yet isn’t able to use his talents.
Finally, “When I Consider” exhibits a woeful tone of loss. It is doubtless a great blow to lose one of one’s senses and this poem shows Milton
dealing with this as best he can: through his writing. This poem was written by a deeply conflicted Puritan man, a talented man who lost his
independence as he lost his vision.

In these lines, Milton asks how he could work for God if his light is denied him? Patience replies that God has no need of his work and that
one can serve God simply by accepting the situation.

1. 13. Poetic Elements : FORM “On His Blindness” is an example of Petrarchan sonnet in structure since it followed an
octave-sestet style. Since it a sonnet, it would also follow that the poem is an example of a lyric poetry.
2. 14. Poetic Elements : Rhythm All the lines in the poem are in iambic pentameter. In this metric pattern, a line has five
pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables, for a total of ten syllables. The first two lines of the poem illustrate this pattern:
1...........2........... ……3............4................5 ….. When I | con SID | er HOW.| my LIFE | is SPENT 1.....................2..............
3.....................4....................5 Ere HALF | my DAYS | in THIS | darkWORLD.| and WIDE
3. 15. Poetic Elements : Voice The voice of this poem is a man who is seething with frustration with his incapability of
serving God profitably.
4. 16. Poetic Elements : IMAGERY The poem focuses on the sense of sight or rather the loss of it. The voice of the poem
laments on his loss of sight and how this problem could affect his poetic talent. At the beginning, the voice helps us picture out a world
that is dark and wide then at the end, it help us imagined God with His angels doing his bidding and human at His side singing praise
for Him.
5. 17. Poetic Elements : SOUND Since the poem is a Petrarchan sonnet, the poem could be divided into two parts: the
octave and the sestet. The octave follows a rhyming pattern of a/b/b/a/a/b/b/a while the sestet follows the rhyming patter of a/b/c/a/b/c
6. Figurative Language Milton uses figurative language to express his grievances and discontent. He reflects upon his life
and “how my light is spent,” or the time he had his sight. Milton then expresses the feeling of the “dark world and wide” of the blind as
his introduction to his questions. He begins to question his writing that only death can take away (“...one talent which is death to hide..”),
“lodged... useless” within him because of his new blindness. As a result, Milton begins to question God, “Doth God exact day-labour,
light denied?” Milton wonders as to the meaning of his blindness; if God want him to continue to write, even with his blindness.
Moreover, Milton uses allegory in comparing his situation with the event in the Parable of Talents with him being the third servant who
buried his money and God as the Lord. Furthermore, Milton uses personification to express the importance of words and values. He
personifies “Patience” as if patience were a man who replies for him. Patience is his reasoning for accepting the fact that he is blind. It
is used to introduce the answer towards his questioning.
7. 23. Examples of Figures of Speech Alliteration: my days in this dark world and wide (line 2) Metaphor: though my soul
more bent / To serve therewith my Maker (lines 3-4). The author compares his soul to his mind. Personification/Metaphor: But
Patience, to prevent / That murmur, soon replies . . . (lines 8-9). Paradox: They also serve who only stand and wait.
Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn after the Civil War. The legal issues of slavery had been settled but the moral and philosophical issues
remained, and to some extent, they linger with us today. Twain was skeptical of organized religion and found it both ironic and hypocritical for
any citizen to claim to be a Christian and to also find justification in the dehumanizing of Black Americans. Those who believed in slavery may
have had economic reasons for their belief, but in essence, they began with the notion that black people were less than human.  The
brilliance of his character creation of Huck Finn was that Huck was a product of his own culture and society. Huck’s most personal and
agonizing dilemma in the book is his belief that Jim was the property of someone else. If Huck was to help Jim, he would be committing a sin.
He would be stealing someone else’s property. Huck believed this because that is what he was raised to believe. Huck has to decide whether
Jim is property or his friend, his human friend. Everything Jim does leads Huck to believe that Jim is his friend, and in the end he accepts
what he thinks is his fate. He will go to hell.  Huck’s comprehension of Christian beliefs is not very deep, and that is another brilliant choice by
Twain, in that Huck’s ignorance is far more harmful than his knowledge. Like the old cliché, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”  Twain
made another brilliant choice by telling the entire story through the eyes of his hero, Huck. We are privy to Huck’s real thoughts in real time,
and the beauty of Huck Finn, an ignorant southern adolescent living in the South during times of slavery is that Huck is open minded and an
independent thinker. He is wise beyond his years. Twain was a very sharp critic of society and culture, but he was averse to moralizing and
preferred to be thought of as a writer rather than a philosopher.  By placing this abused boy, neglected and uneducated, even “uncivilized” as
Huck calls himself, in that time right before the nation was torn apart and to pair him up with a black slave, the very object of the coming
dispute, and to allow Huck to experience the time and observe the civilization of “adults,” allows the reader to come to their own moral
conclusions and to either agree or disagree with Huck’s simple philosophy.

Moral and Philosophical Approaches

Definition
A moral and philosophical approach would primarily reflect the time period of the piece. The function of literature was to teach the moral
values and philosophical thought of the time period. Most moral and philosophical approaches would be religiously oriented. Works were
expected to have an important moral and philosophical teaching, which deemed it significant and intelligible. 
Apart of a Larger Social Movement
The moral and philosophical approach to slavery, as demonstrated in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is evident through the use of Jim
as a friend of Huckleberry's.
Application to the Novel
Twain uses the novel to show the reader that slavery was immoral even before it was declared illegal through the character development of
Huckleberry and his friendship with Jim.

Slavery is immoral at time of publication

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in 1884
Novel was set in the 1830s-40s
Slavery was abolished in 1865
Deepened Understanding of the Novel
A better understanding of the novel is reached through the unbiased views of Huckleberry Finn. By showing Huckleberry as not pro nor
against slavery allows the reader to understand the normalities of the time period and judge whether they are moral or not

Huckleberry Finn Analysis

Although there are several themes that are apparent in Mark Twain’s The Adventures Huckleberry Finn, there is one theme that is more
distinguished throughout the course of the novel than any other. This satirical view of Twain’s is apparent through his story of Huckleberry
Finn. Mark Twain uses satire to convey his views on the failings and evils of society by poking fun at the institutions of religion, education,
and slavery. This satirical view of Twain’s is apparent through his story of Huckleberry Finn.

Religion is one of the key recipients of Twain's satire throughout the novel. Huck is forced by Ms. Watson to read and learn about the
important people in The Bible, and within the first pages of the book we discover Huck is not fond of the widow or her lectures. Twain uses
Huck to reveal his idea that people put so much devotion into the works of long-gone ancestors of The Bible that they ignore other moral
accomplishments of the present day. It is shown that religious people seem to be blind to the realities of modern civilization, and are living
their lives according to old morals. This is why Huck mentions that the widow does not see any good in his works, and regardless of what
Huck feels, his good deeds are not a
The youngest Grangerford grows up in a world of feuds, family picnics, and Sunday sermons that are appreciated but rarely followed and
never questions the ways of his family. This family lives their lives by tradition, and the fact that the feud is a tradition justifies its needless,
pointless violence for them. As Mark Twain once said, “I believe I have no prejudices whatsoever. Another time, Pap is ranting about an
educated black and insists that he is superior to the colored man, even though he himself has no education and, is a drunk. This novel also
shows that recognition of a human being is sometimes unintentionally ignored, as seen through religion and education, yet very deliberate
through the torment of slavery. After this, Huck begins to truly consider the fact that Jim is smart, “I never see such a nigger…. nything
honorable, like biblical events, in the eyes of his elders. By using this feud as an example, Twain shows that people will blindly follow what
they have been raised on without stopping to think about the consequences. Huck admires the Grangerfords’ principles, and the interest they
placed in good manners, delicious food, and attractive possessions. The reasons for the rivalries between the two families have been
forgotten. This idea is brought to the reader’s attention when Col. All I need to know is that a man is a member of the human race. The
Shepherdsons done the same” (110).

The story The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (by Mark Twain) paints a picture of how badly African Americans were treated during the
1800s. The story is about the adventures faced by Huck and Jim, a runaway slave, as they travel down the Mississippi River on a
raft.Throughout the book you see how slaves were treated. Jim is recaptured, held prisoner, and sold. You can also see the bad behavior of
Huck’s drunken father.

When you read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you may be angered, shocked, moved, or inspired. Some critics judge texts to be good
if they are moving or morally uplifting. This is called the moral-philosophical approach to literary criticism.

Moral-philosophical critics believe that the purpose of writing is not just to tell a story. They think that the larger purpose of literature is to
teach morality and to probe philosophical issues. A text is considered good if it leads us to understand our inner emotions.

This approach works for texts that have an obvious moral philosophy, like Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man." It’s also useful when you’re
thinking about the theme of a story. The story of Huck Finn is an example of this.

Critics of the philosophical approach think that literature should be judged mainly by its quality as a piece of art. They think you actually
shouldn’t place so much weight on the moral or philosophical content. These critics think such an approach can be too "judgmental."

The philosophical approach is a perfect approach to use when you’re reading a fable or a parable. These types of stories are written
specifically to convey a truth.

Aesop was a Greek slave who lived in the 6th cent. B.C. and eventually was freed by his master. He wrote hundreds of fables that are still
famous today. A fable is a story that usually has animal characters and is used to enforce a truth. Here is one of Aesop’s fables. Try to figure
out what “moral” or theme Aesop is trying to get across.
In the poem, William Blake is principally describing a very corrupted society dominated by the power of materialism and the contrast between
upper and working-class sections of society. It is written from a very negative perspective where people who exist in a dark and oppressive
world, suffering the consequences of corruption of those in positions of power. The problem is that they do not realize this is happening to
them. For this reason, he is rejecting the idea of an ideological or perfect place to live and he wants people to be aware of the misery
surrounding them. No wonderful streets, no pleasant people. A world with a very depressing atmosphere, where everything is poverty
stricken. All these ideas are represented in one place: London.
 
The poem is divided in four quatrains in iambic tetrameter, with a basic rhyme scheme starting  a/b/a/b.
 
In the first quatrain, the author is talking about how he is walking through every transitory street. The adjective “chartered” seems to connote
the importance of money to live everyday in this ephemeral world, where everything is focused around money, richness and its value to reach
anything. But, in despite of the role of money has in the world and happiness because of its value, many people are dominated by sorrow
and sadness. The verses “In every cry of every man” and “in every infant’s cry of fear” are examples of this fact. People are not happy. They
are living in fear all the time, inside the dark of a society influenced by materialism. Human beings are loosing the real sense of life.
 
The materialism of words is reflected in the second quatrain with “the mind-forged manacles”, which represents people’s preoccupation for
money and the dependence to the important institutions.
 
 
In the third quatrain, the author is comparing two different representations: a chimney-sweeper and a soldier. Both of them are archetypal
that represent the most important institutions of that time: Monarchy and the Church, which are the reason of the suffering of human beings.
This one has a clear connotation of power and manipulation in society.
 
The fourth quatrain represents the author talking again about what he hears metaphorically while he is walking through the street. “The
youthful harlot’s curse” makes reference to the disease of syphilis, very frequent in that time, in the 18 th century, which is the principal cause
of death. The term “harlot” has negative connotations, as “curse”. It is interpreted as something which destroys life and
society. Syphilis destroys life, whereas harlots destroy families, and family is the most important part in society, in this case, in English
society. “The marriage-hearse” could be understood as a “vehicle in which love and desire combine with death and destruction” (Elite Skills
classics, 2004).
 
The final idea of this poem is the claim of a free society, without any chains, without any kind of ideological condition. The message is to be
free yourself from the restriction of your own mind and the conceptions to be able to find freedom.
 
 
 Many of the poems appearing in “Songs of Innocence” have a counterpart in “Songs of Experience” with opposing perspectives of the world.
The disastrous end of the French Revolution caused Blake to lose faith in the goodness of mankind, explaining much of the volume’s sense
of despair (Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia; “Songs of Innocence and of Experience”; 28 Nov. 2007).
 
Relating to history, London could be a place of honest work, where merchants and artisans were able to stand up as citizens,
defending their rights against tyrannical authority. But citizens might be corrupted by the profits of war. As an imperial centre, and a harmony
of war, London also had a dark side for Blake. Even though London was not really a factory town, he saw in it an emblem for the emerging
Industrial Revolution’s pollution of the English land and oppression of the common people. He was powerfully influenced by the French and
American revolutions, and his critique of the new modernity was a comprehensive one, ranging from imperialistic government, to industry, to
the social relations of everyday life (W.W. Norton, 2005).
 
According to Blake’s legacy, like other great artists, he had a profound intuitive grasp of human psychology. More explicitly than any
English writer before him, however, he pointed out the interrelationship of problems associated with cruelty, self-righteousness, sexual
disturbance, social inequity, repression of energy by reason, and revolutionary violence. He identified all these ills as symptoms rather than
causes: symptoms of the absence of love, the starvation of the spirit, and the fragmentation of both the individual personality and the human
family. For Blake, the fragmentation and emptiness of most people's lives can best be understood through a myth of the Fall of Man. The
prophet sees all the misery and bewilderment resulting from the Fall; his duty is both to identify the causes of evil and to dispel the illusion
that it is inevitable: “The Nature of my Work is Visionary or Imaginative; it is an Endeavour to Restore what the Ancients called the Golden
Age”. Blake dreamed dreams and saw visions not for escape but for change and renewal. The purpose of art, he insisted, is to enable all
people to share in vision, to coordinate a prophetic insight into contemporary events with a visionary perception of how life might be different
and better. With him, a few of his contemporaries were able to recognize that artistic innovations, unlike debates in Parliament or battles
in Europe, can unify and inspire a society to work for the New Age (W.W. Norton, 2005).
 
Blake’s poem becomes a critique of contemporary global capital and its encroachment upon all aspects of daily life (Roger Whitson, 2006).
Moreover, largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake’s work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and
the visual arts. He was voted 38 th in a poll of the 100 Greatest Britons organised by the BBC in 2002 (Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia;
“William Blake”; 28 Nov. 2007).
 

“London” is a sixteen-line poem composed of four stanzas of alternatively rhyming short lines. “London” is included in the “Songs of
Experience” section of William Blake’s larger work, Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794) and contributes to Blake’s portrait of fallen
human nature.

Blake focuses his attention on the condition of London, England, the capital not only of the country but also of “culture,” yet, as the four
stanzas make abundantly clear, Blake does not share the opinion that this city sets a positive example. Each stanza of “London” points out
ways in which the British monarchy and English laws cause human suffering.

The poem is written in the first person and reports the narrator’s observations as he walks through the streets of London. Stanza 1 opens
near the River Thames, the heartline of the British Empire; it connects the capital city with the rest of the world. Here Blake observes that
everything he sees is “charter’d”—owned by and bound to someone—including the river, which ironically should flow freely to the ocean. The
narrator comments that everywhere he looks he sees unhappiness and people suffering.

The second stanza reports what the narrator hears as he walks these imprisoning avenues: human cries of anguish and fear. Not only does
he find this suffering in individual misery, but Blake also says that the legal dictates he hears carry with them threats to...

Often referred to as a social commentator, a large number of Blake’s poems focused on similar themes that were relevant to the society in
which he was writing, such as poems on industrialization, child labor and the more general notions of man versus nature and the individual
against society, etc. “London” is no exception to this, acting as a social commentary on Blake’s time. At first, Blake loved London, he wrote
that “golden London and her silver Thames, throng’d with shining spires and corded ships”(Poetical Sketches), but after French Revolution,
the British government began to oppress the civil democratic activities. Then London was quite different from before: everything was covered
with darkness, terrors and miseries. In this poem, Blake draws from his personal observations and gives a comprehensive picture of the
many miseries, physical and spiritual, in the English capital London. He paints a picture of the dirty, miserable streets of London and
describes the wretched people at the bottom of the society: the chimney-sweepers, soldiers, and harlots. The entire poem centers on the
wails of these people from their pain and the injustices done to them, and exposes the gap between those in power and the misery of poor
people. The poem is representative of English economic problems of the time, condemning many powerful institutions such as the church,
royalty, the new industries, and the military. The main subject and theme of this poem is man’s lack of freedom and the causes of this lack. It
is a relatively unique poem, in that it takes such a negative and critical view of London, when at the time the city represented the pinnacle of
technology, and was considered the center of western culture and Brutish Empire. B. Technical Features in the Poem “London” is an
outstanding poem not only due to the subject and theme reflected in it but also due to the almost flawless writing techniques used by the
poet.

The following are some of the technical features in this poem. 1. Images. The key image in this poem is “the mind-forg’d manacles”—
attitudes which take away our freedom of thought and action. Three powerful examples of those who are not free, or three encounters who
have “weakness” and “woe” are the chimney-sweeper, the soldier and the harlot. The “mind-forged manacles” of the second stanza is the
key image and the central metaphor of this poem. Blake imagines the mind as a forge where “manacles” are made. Manacles and shackles
for the legs, would be seen on convicts, perhaps passing along the streets on their way to prison or, commonly in London in Blake’s time, on
their way to ships, for transportation to Australia. For Blake and his readers, the image is very striking and horrible. The image is also an
allusion to an even more famous statement. In 1762, some thirty years before Blake wrote “London”, the Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques
Rousseau wrote in “The Social Contract”, “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”. Blake agrees with Rousseau that man’s lack of
freedom, his “manacles” are “mind-forged”—they come from the ideas and outlook imposed on us by external authority. Mind forged
manacles lie at the heart of the poem. The examples of the “the mind-forg’d manacles” start with the chimney-sweeper. As the church
building is literally “black’ning” with smoke from the chimneys, so the church as an organization, which should help the poor, is blackened,
metaphorically, with shame at its failure to give that help. The church should be appalled by the cry of the “chimney-sweeper”. The second
image is the “hapless” solider. The poem was written shortly after the start of the French Revolution: the uprising was so bloody that the
figure of speech called hyperbole was often used, as blood was said to be running down the walls. Blake shows how the unhappiness of the
English soldier could, if its causes were ignored, lead to similar bloodshed here. The last image —the harlot, is the most shocking to Blake as
well as to us. The harlot is the truth behind respectable ideas of marriage. New birth is not a happy event but only to continue the cycle of
misery, and the wedding carriage is seen as a hearse, leading to a kind of death. The word “plagues” here suggests the sexually transmitted
diseases, which the “youthful harlot” would contract, and pass on to others, giving her cursing words real destructive power.

2. Capitalization Capitalization is used extensively throughout the poem, to infer something beyond the simple meaning of the word—it
usually means something deeper. For instance, the capitalization of Man in the second stanza suggests that the whole of urbanized society
has gone to the state of moral decay and misery. “every Infants cry”—the capital letter shows that there is something beyond just children
that the persona meets—also innocence, which is being corrupted by fear; instead of child idealistically being given security or a haven, here
they have to fear and be afraid. Capitalization is also used in “Chimney-sweeper’s cry”, “Church”, “Soldier”, “Palace”, “Harlot”, and
“Marriage”—usually to represent an idea beyond just the word, or an institution which will be criticized. For instance, “Soldier” represents the
army, “Chimney-sweeper” represents child labor, “Harlot” represents prostitution, “Palace” symbolizes royal family, etc. Capitalization is used
a lot, and represents the institutions, and is accompanied by the reason why Blake is criticizing these institutions.

3. Choice of words The careful choice of some words also enhanced the theme of this poem. The following are some examples. The use of
the word “charter’d” in the first line is rich in imagery. It introduces imagery of mankind in bondage—showing that oppression, not freedom or
individuality is the condition of the London that Blake writes about. “Charter’d” also means hired out, or leased, and shows that the city is in
the hands of the merchants, and even the streets and the river Thames is being controlled for profits. The use of “face” in the first stanza
dehumanizes the words—the persona is not seeing marks of weakness or woe in a human person, just a blank face. The poet chooses the
word “face” instead of “person” to show the loss and sorrow of the people. “Blackening” is an easy and common word, but in this poem, the
poet wonderfully chooses this word which literally means blackening with smoke, but metaphorically means blackening with shame at its
failure to give that help. At the same time, this word contrasts with “appalls” which means makes pale. Such a simple word conveys so much
information, so we have to admire the poet’s technique in choosing words. “Harlot” is a Biblical word, and is stronger than “prostitute”. By
using this word, the poet expresses his deep worry and strong condemnation of the society. And thus, the last stanza is the most powerful
part of the poem. The unfortunate women are forced to be harlots. Just according to their curses, we can see everything covered with
darkness, so the wedding becomes a funeral. Here “marriage hearse” is an apparent contradiction and is a figure of speech known as an
oxymoron. It is used satirically to compare the wedding to a funeral and foretells what kind of future England must be faced with if things go
like this.

4. Repetitions In this poem, Blake uses many powerful devices to enhance the expression of the theme, one of which is the use of repetition
for special purposes. In the first stanza, there is something awkward in the repetition of the word “mark”. The first “mark” is a verb, the second
and last are nouns. So there were two complex effects: The observer “marks”, but he marks “marks”. Blake reinforces the effect of being
dragged into an imprisoned world, where nothing reveals from the faces he meets, but weakness and woe. In the second stanza, the poet
even uses “every” for five times, showing that no one can escape from the miserable and tragic reality, that is, there are “The mind-forg’d
manacles” everywhere. The repetition of “cry”, “cry of every man”, “Infant’s cry of fear”, “the Chimney-sweeper’s cry” and even “the hapless
Soldier’s sigh”, emphasize how the people in London suffered at that time. 5. Rhyme and rhythm This poem is famous for highly strong
musical pattern. Generally speaking, the rhyme and rhythm is very definite and structured—the rhyme is ABAB CDCD, and this poem is
written with a metrical pattern of iambic tetrameter sporadically blended with trochaic tetrameter—which can help to accentuate the line, with
7 syllables and the first word stressed. The changes are acquired by the special purposes, i.e. the emphasis of the meaning. The alteration of
the stresses on the syllables in each line makes the poem sound like striking of the anvil, and also helps the poem to be more powerful. So
one of the most striking characteristics of this poem is the anvil music. In addition to the technical features mentioned above, “London” begins
with the verb set in the present tense. This implies that the poem concerns timeless realities unbounded by references to any particular
incident. The use of a persona in this poem who clearly has firsthand knowledge of London’s conditions lends credibility to the poem, making
it more personal and emotive.

III. CONCLUSION William Blake was the most extraordinary literary genius of his age. His lyrics display all the characteristics of the romantic
spirit. He influenced the Romantic poets with recurring themes of good and evil, heaven and hell, knowledge and innocence, and external
reality versus inner imagination. His poems were full of romantic spirit, imagery symbolism and revolutionary spirit. He was the forerunner of
romantic poetry of the 19th century. As for his poem “London”, as is all shown above, with the vivid images and the various techniques, Blake
shows us the great suffering of the British society during the French Revolution and Industrial Revolution, so that “London” deserves “the
mightiest brief poem”. Overall “London” is a very pessimistic poem that expresses no solutions to the issues mentioned within each line. By
its conclusion, this nightmarish impression of darkness is heavily imbued within the thoughts of the reader. Perhaps just as William Blake
would have intended, this poem is to truly convey the horror and injustice that was London.
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.

The speaker wanders through the streets of London and comments on his observations. He sees despair in the faces of the people he meets
and hears fear and repression in their voices. The woeful cry of the chimney-sweeper stands as a chastisement to the Church, and the blood
of a soldier stains the outer walls of the monarch’s residence. The nighttime holds nothing more promising: the cursing of prostitutes corrupts
the newborn infant and sullies the “Marriage hearse.”

The poem has four quatrains, with alternate lines rhyming. Repetition is the most striking formal feature of the poem, and it serves to
emphasize the prevalence of the horrors the speaker describes.

Commentary

The opening image of wandering, the focus on sound, and the images of stains in this poem’s first lines recall the Introduction toSongs of
Innocence, but with a twist; we are now quite far from the piping, pastoral bard of the earlier poem: we are in the city. The poem’s title
denotes a specific geographic space, not the archetypal locales in which many of the other Songs are set. Everything in this urban space—
even the natural River Thames—submits to being “charter’d,” a term which combines mapping and legalism. Blake’s repetition of this word
(which he then tops with two repetitions of “mark” in the next two lines) reinforces the sense of stricture the speaker feels upon entering the
city. It is as if language itself, the poet’s medium, experiences a hemming-in, a restriction of resources. Blake’s repetition, thudding and
oppressive, reflects the suffocating atmosphere of the city. But words also undergo transformation within this repetition: thus “mark,” between
the third and fourth lines, changes from a verb to a pair of nouns—from an act of observation which leaves some room for imaginative
elaboration, to an indelible imprint, branding the people’s bodies regardless of the speaker’s actions.
Ironically, the speaker’s “meeting” with these marks represents the experience closest to a human encounter that the poem will offer the
speaker. All the speaker’s subjects—men, infants, chimney-sweeper, soldier, harlot—are known only through the traces they leave behind:
the ubiquitous cries, the blood on the palace walls. Signs of human suffering abound, but a complete human form—the human form that
Blake has used repeatedly in the Songs to personify and render natural phenomena—is lacking. In the third stanza the cry of the chimney-
sweep and the sigh of the soldier metamorphose (almost mystically) into soot on church walls and blood on palace walls—but we never see
the chimney-sweep or the soldier themselves. Likewise, institutions of power—the clergy, the government—are rendered by synecdoche, by
mention of the places in which they reside. Indeed, it is crucial to Blake’s commentary that neither the city’s victims nor their oppressors ever
appear in body: Blake does not simply blame a set of institutions or a system of enslavement for the city’s woes; rather, the victims help to
make their own “mind-forg’d manacles,” more powerful than material chains could ever be.

The poem climaxes at the moment when the cycle of misery recommences, in the form of a new human being starting life: a baby is born into
poverty, to a cursing, prostitute mother. Sexual and marital union—the place of possible regeneration and rebirth—are tainted by the blight of
venereal disease. Thus Blake’s final image is the “Marriage hearse,” a vehicle in which love and desire combine with death and destruction.

Analysis of Blake's London   

  

In the formal approach method to critical analysis, it is essential to read William Blake's "London" mechanically. Blake uses his rhetorical
skills of alliteration, imagery, and word choice to create his poem, but more importantly to express the emotional significance that is implied. 

  

William Blake's poem, "London", is obviously a sorrowful poem. In the first two stanzas, Blake utilizes alliteration and word choice to set the
mournful atmosphere. Blake introduces his reader to the narrator as he "wanders" through the "chartered" society. A society in which every
person he sees has "marks of weakness, marks of woe." Blake repeatedly uses the word "every" and "cry" in the second stanza to symbolize
the depression that hovers over the entire society. The "mind-forged manacles" the narrator hears suggests that he is not mentally stable. 

  

In the third stanza, Blake utilizes imagery of destruction and religion. This imagery is a paradox, which implies some religious destruction like
the apocalypse. The "chimney-sweeper's cry" symbolizes the society trying to clean the ashes that causes their state of depression. Blake
uses the religious imagery of the "black'ning church" to represent the loss of innocence, and the society's abandonment of religion. 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. As these soldiers unwilling march to the beat of the country's forceful drum, they know their lives will be taken, as their
"sigh runs in blood down palace walls." Blake uses this sense of destruction to explain how people are forced to repair the "weakness" and
"woe" of their society. 

  

The fourth stanza of "London" unravels the complex meaning of the poem. The "youthful harlot's curse" symbolizes how the youth's sinful
deeds will effect the next generation. Their "curse" causes the "newborn infant's tear" which exemplifies how the new generation will have to
correct the mistakes of the previous generation. The "plagues" also symbolizes this curse, and the "marriage hearse" creates a paradox,
which confuses eternity and death. 

  

William Blake's "London" is a poem about a society that is troubled by the mistakes of the generation before. Blake uses the rhetorical
components of imagery, alliteration, and word choice to illustrate the meaning of the poem. What exactly does this poem mean? Blake
creates complexity by using his rhetorical skills, which in turn opens up the poem for personal interpretation.