Analysis of London

William Blake 1757 (Soho) – 1827 (London)



I wandered through each chartered street,
   Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
 A 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 blackening church appals,
 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.


Scheme ABAB CXCD EFEF DFXF
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 11011101 11010111 010100111 1110111 0100111001 010010111 0100101001 011111 101011 10010011 0010101 1011101 1111111 101011 1011101 01110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 575
Words 92
Sentences 4
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 109
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 14, 2023

29 sec read
284

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter and printmaker. more…

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