 Hello and welcome to our video summarising all you need to know about the poem London by the poet William Blake. My name is Barbara and in this poem we'll begin by examining a little bit about William Blake himself in terms of context and what you need to know about the poet before we move on to analyse the poem in depth. So let's get started. Now William Blake was born on the 1228th rather of November 1757. He not only was an English poet but a visionary of his time. He was also an excellent painter and printmaker. Art is always what attracted his poetry and he belonged to an era called the Romantic Age and most of his poems depict emotions and consequences of this age. Although he wasn't really recognised during his time he turned out to be post-humously successful in other words. He became very successful and very well known after he died. He had always used his imagination to express the innermost emotions of the human race. Since he was most of the time in his own world of art he was considered interestingly mad during his time. Now when it comes to the poem itself London in the first dancer the peak speaker provides the setting and the tone of the poem. The setting can of course be derived from the title itself it's talking about London but the first dancer also reveals that the speaker is walking down a street and he's noting everything that he sees. He says that he and to quit from the poem wanders down each chartered street. Now the term wonder gives some insight into the speaker or the narrator as well. He appears to be not quite sure of himself perhaps misguided if not entirely lost. Also make note of the term chartered which suggests that the streets that he walks through are really controlled and rigid. He's not walking around in a free open area but in a confined rigid mapped out city. The speaker will then expound upon this idea later on as the poem progresses and as he walks he notices something about the faces of the people he's walking by. There seems to be the marks of weariness in them all. They all seem really unhappy and also tired. He describes the faces as being or rather having weakness and woe. This sets up a tone of melancholy. There's gloom and sadness which seem to seep from the speaker's voice and pervade everyone he sees and all the passerbyes he describes. Now when it comes to the second stanza. Whilst the first stanza sets up the really melancholic tone of the poem the second stanza gives us insight into speaker's melancholy feelings towards the people that he sees as he passes them by. The speaker reveals that from the cry of the newborn infant to the cry of the full grown man he hairs the and to quote mindforged manacles. This gives us an insight into his despairing view of mankind. These manacles are described rather as shackles or some kind of chain that keeps a person imprisoned and of course it's really interesting that these manacles are of the mind. It shows of course perhaps the best way to imprison someone in the most profound way is when someone mindset is trapped. The fact that these chains are mindforged also reveals that they are metaphorical chains created by people's own ideas. The use of the word ban reveals that these manacles are placed there by society. A ban of course is a restriction given by law. The speaker's use of words such as chartered ban and manacles reveal his belief that society metaphorically imprisons people. Suddenly it becomes apparent that the thoughts pressures and ideas of society are under scrutiny here. Now in the third stanza the speaker digs even deeper into the reasons first feeling towards humanity. He implies that the shackles worn by people and inflicted by society have some disastrous results. He begins with the chimney sweeper. The chimney sweeper was one of the most poorest within society. Do you remember that chimney sweepers were young children of very very poor parents who were expected to go up and to climb up chimneys and clean the inside of chimneys. Now as a result of their life expectancy was threatened because of this line of work. They were constantly dirty and sick and they often died very young from lung cancer. Now therefore these chimney sweepers were among the lowest class and they were forced into this kind of work in order to provide for their families. Now of course the speaker noting this person and of course implying child labour shows just how disgusted he is at all these deprivations within London. Also in this stanza the speaker criticises the church calling it blackening and claiming that it even appalls at the chimney sweeper and of course this is the speaker's way of criticising institutions which are meant to protect Londoners. Of course the church was seen by the speaker and of course Ulter Barblake himself as really corrupt and allowing all of these violations to happen. Often the chimney sweepers as I've mentioned before were children they were small enough to fit down chimneys and these children were often children and the church was meant to be responsible for looking after them. However these children still had to go to work and this explains why the poet ties the chimney sweepers with the word blackening church and of course this adjective to describe the darkened church shows that actually contrary to saving souls it's killing people and only looking after its own interests. The speaker then turns his attentions to the helpless soldier. He's already criticised society pointing to that the misfortunes of the poor and the hypocrisy of the church and now he'll also criticise the government by suggesting that the soldiers are the poor victims of a corrupt government. The speaker reveals his feelings towards war by describing the blood that runs down palace walls. The palace of course is where the royalty lives and of course this is tying it in to the monarchy who the speaker appears to show that they do not really care for these people that work for them these soldiers that fight and die for them. Therefore the speaker seems to accuse people in the elite so of course the monarchy the church and so on within society of spilling these blood of the soldiers in order to keep the comforts of living in a palace and not really caring for them. Now in the fourth and final stanza the speaker reveals just how corrupt society is and how it attacks innocence. He says that he hears the and to quote from the poem youthful harlots curse. The idea of a youthful harlot suggests the poverty and corruption that a girl who has yet to be a fully grown woman she's still a youth would be involved in prostitution is a real abomination and of course this shows just the degradation that's pervasive within London. Then things become even more interesting as the speaker reveals the object of the harlots cursing also of course bear in mind that this harlot harlot who and harlot is a term for a prostitute. She is young and she's already cursing again this is showing that she's really lost her innocence. However we learn that she curses at the tears of a newborn baby and this is really the ultimate attack upon innocence. She has become pregnant as a result of being a prostitute. Now the speaker doesn't reveal whether the harlot is the mother of the baby or not but he does imply that rather than comforting this crying infant she curses it which really makes it probably quite certain that she probably is also the mother. This reveals the hardened heart of this young harlot which represents the hardened heart of society at large while the innocent shed tears the perverted attack them. Therefore the last line of this poem reveals the speaker's thoughts on marriage as well as how society treats marriage. Now also it's really interesting that the harlot apparently has blighted this marriage hearse. She has deranged marriage by having sold her body before ever entering into a marriage union. Although the speaker believes that the harlot has somehow damaged marriage he also reveals his belief about marriage in the first place. The fact that he calls it a marriage hearse reveals that he views marriage as a form of death and overall the poem really criticizes society the church prostitution as well as marriage. The innocent baby shedding tears also represents those who are innocent in the world and how they are harmed in this world. They are few and they are scoffed at. They're also infants but not to be left to be innocent for long as the innocence is blasted by the cry of the perverted.