London: A Critique and Its Revision by William Blake - Essay Example

London A critique and it’s revision by William Blake “London”, a poem by William Blake, is one from his published collection called Songs of Experience, 1794. Most of the poems in this collection have corresponding verse in Blake’s alternative, Songs of Innocence. “London”, like a few others, is not one of them (fact). As is discernable from the earliest draft of the poem (preserved in the British Museum), Blake, in all probability, intended “London” to be a three-stanza poem (V. Donyo, p. 58, Oxford Journals, 1972). From the first stanza onwards, Blake creates the image of a city that is very mechanical and uniform in its operation and presence (Ian Donaldson, p. 113, Oxford Journals, 1975). Donaldson illustrates this view by quoting some of the verbiage used by Blake – the repetition of some of the words and their placing in the poem to evoke similar sentiments in the reader (re-appearing here in order and in number): “chartered”, “Chartered”, “mark”, “Marks”, “marks”, “weakness” and “woe”. Blake, it seems, is trying to say that all city life, whether it be London or not, is like this (Ibid.). The lines in the stanza unfold just as mechanical and emotionless. The word Chartered has been debated. It could have a number of meanings. It could mean “freighted”, it may even mean the streets and/or the Thames river exhausted, or the business that is done on them. (E.P. Thompson, p.176, Cambridge University Press, 1993). It is probably the latter, as such places, through charter, have become like private property (Abrams, M.H.  Norton,  p. 56 W.W. Norton: New York.  2000) (streets and the Thames itself!) and that these same places have the city dependant on them for wealth through legal rights and privileges. (Andrew Lincoln,  p. 194 Princeton: New Jersey.  1991). In other words, the streets and Thames, through the use of the word Chartered, have become “choked with commerce” (Paglia, Camille, p. 59, Pantheon:  New York. 2005). This is clearly an attack by Blake on the capitalist fundamentals that have plagued London, and which are responsible for the unequal distribution of wealth. The words “marks of weakness, marks of woe” does not mean putting a mark on a person’s face, but Blake sees these as marks on people that pass him on the streets of London. (Kazin, Alfred, p. 38, The New Republic, Washington, 1994). The poem is a voice against all of the misery and exploitation that was rampant then, the era of the French Revolution. (Ibid.) By using the word “weakness” in the first stanza, Blake is trying to say that the citizens have become broken spiritually (Ibid.). They have been made to become small by the shallowness of their hopes and the unforgiving society in which they exist (Ibid.). As Blake believed in the relationship between art and religion as being infinite, it is evident here, in this stanza, that the people lack the sensibilities of the infinite: those that go in circles are happy in their state and this is a sign of the infinite being wanting (Ibid.). Blake also uses a strict rhyme scheme of a/b/a/b throughout the poem, thereby employing a very restrictive meter, which, concurrently, connotes the limits of not only the medium (Ackroyd, Peter, p. 141, Knopf: New York. 1996), but also of the city of London. However, it should be noted, that this rather systematic rhyme scheme was not present in the first draft of “London” by Blake, hence the revision to the poem, to which I now turn to. While the first stanza had alternative rhyme scheme i.e. the first quatrain, this was only true of the first and third lines in the second stanza in the original draft i.e. “man” and “ban”, while the third stanza had identical rhyme – the word “walls”. (V. Donyo, p. 59). (Please see the original draft enclosed for ready reference below). There was no fourth stanza in the first draft (fact). This was just the beginning of Blake’s revision, which went beyond metrical differences (fact). The word “mark” appearing in “And mark in every face I meet” was originally “see” (fact). This replacement transcends the verse from mere physical description (sight) to a more wholesome “social commentary” (V. Donyo, p. 59). It is the poetic technique of alliteration that Blake employs, and this repetition and economy, as mentioned, illustrates the dull lives of mechanical lives of eighteenth century Londoners (V. Donyo, p. 59). In the second stanza, the last line read, “The german forged links I hear”, and its transformation to the present form was possibly owing to the retreat of the German mercenaries who had been quartered in the London region (Erdman, Princeton, p. 255-258, 1954). Instead of the word “links” which connotes connection or linkage, a more specific “manacles” was inserted (V. Donyo, p. 59). The most distinct change Blake sought in “London”, was to introduce another stanza (fact). Blake probably intended to strengthen the form of the poem, as the first two stanzas were written in iambic tetrameter (a/b/a/b) but the last four lines of the third stanza were not similarly symmetrical i.e. they read “cry”/“walls”/“sigh”/“walls” (V. Donyo, p.60). He could have inserted the last stanza to continue with the ethos of what is seen and what is heard (V. Donyo, p.60). The last additional stanza, seems to culminate in summarizing the entire poem with a steady stream of references to the preceding stanzas – the “midnight street” (stanza 1) “new born infant” (stanza 2) and “marriage hearse” ( the “Church” in stanza 3) (V. Donyo, p. 60). From what is present in the British museum, Blake revised the fourth stanza twice, and it is discernable that the phrases “youthful harlot” and “marriage hearse” are deliberately contradictory, and reflect Blake’s two publications in spirit – Experience and Innocence, because in each reference Blake has the two topics present respectively (V. Donyo p.60). The closure with the line “midnight streets” gathers a rather morbid, gloomy, foreboding conclusion and setting for the poem (V. Donyo, p. 60). The opening line of the third stanza, “How the Chimney sweeper’s cry” originally began with “But most the Chimney … ” (fact). This conforms it to the headless iambic tetrameter of the other lines in the stanza i.e. first word of each of the four lines (V. Donyo, p. 60). Also, it can be noticed that the first letters of each word spell out an acrostic “HEAR” - an acronym (V. Donyo, p. 60). This could be coincidence, however, the stanza contains aural references: cry and sigh and is placed in between the rhyme of “hear” of the second and fourth stanzas (V. Donyo, p. 60). Closer to final publication, Blake changed the first stanza from “dirty streets” and “charter’d street” to “dirty Thames” and “charter’d Thames”. This hi-lights the economic issues prevalent in London of the eighteenth century (V. Donyo, p. 61). Even in writing and revising this poem, it is clear, that Blake was heavily influenced by Dr. Isaac Watts (The Editor, Oxford University Press, p.155, 1944). Blake, in Watts, found in equal measure things to accept and those to reject (Ibid.). Whereas Watts wrote Song IV (Divine Songs), Blake wrote “London” (Songs of Experience), and the difference seems to be that Watts wrote for children, whereas Blake wrote for adults (Ibid.). Professor V. de S. Pinto writing in the July 1944 issue of Review of English Studies makes it clear that “London” is more of a cradle song. It is, compared to Watts, more subtle and proves to sway, “like a cradle”, while Watts’ Song IV is attractive to a persons visual imagination (Ibid.). William Blake’s original “London”, as noted in his notebook, preserved in the British Museum I wander thro each dirty street, Near where the dirty Thames does flow And see in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, In every voice of every child, In every voice in every ban, The german forged links I hear But most the Chimney-sweepers cry Blackens oer the churches walls, And the hapless soldiers sigh Runs in blood down palace walls. Bibliography 1. V. Donyo, Blake’s Revision of London p. 58 - 63, Essays in Criticism, Oxford Journals, 1972. 2. Ian Donaldson, The Satirists’ London, p. 101 – 122, Essays in Criticism, Oxford Journals, 1975 3. E.P. Thompson, Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law, p.176, Cambridge University Press, 1993 4. Abrams, M.H.  Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period,  p. 56, W.W. Norton: New York  2000. 5. Andrew Lincoln, Blake, William:  Songs of Innocence and Experience,  edited, notes and introduction,  p. 194, Princeton: New Jersey  1991. 6. Paglia, Camille,  Break, Blow, Burn,  p. 59, Pantheon:  New York, 2005. 7. Kazin, Alfred, William Blake, The New Republic, Washington, p. 38, March 21, 1994, Vol. 210 Issue 12. 8. Ackroyd, Peter.  Blake,  p. 141, Knopf: New York. 1996 9. David V. Erdman, Blake Prophet Against Empire, p. 255-258, Princeton, 1954 10. The Editor, “Memorabilia”, p. 155, Notes and Queries, Oxford University Press, October 7, 1944 Read More