London
I wander 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 cryEvery blackening church appals,And the hapless soldier’s sighRuns in blood down palace-walls.
But most, through midnight streets I hearHow the youthful harlot’s curseBlasts the new-born infant’s tear,And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.
Words in this poem
- chartered a.
- Granted or established by charter; having, or existing under, a charter; having a privilege by charter.
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
London is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Project Gutenberg ebook #1934; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Blake, London, in Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789–1794), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1934, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/blake-songs/london.html, id L02905.
Form and metre
London is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB streetA · flowB · meetA · woeB
- 2 ABAB manA · fearB · banA · hearB
- 3 ABAB cryA · appalsB · sighA · wallsB
- 4 ABAB hearA · curseB · tearA · hearseB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I wander through each chartered street, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Near where the chartered Thames does flow, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A mark in every face I meet, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Marks of weakness, marks of woe. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| In every cry of every man, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| In every infant’s cry of fear, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| In every voice, in every ban, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The mind-forged manacles I hear: | 7 | ······· |
| How the chimney-sweeper’s cry | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Every blackening church appals, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| And the hapless soldier’s sigh | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Runs in blood down palace-walls. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| But most, through midnight streets I hear | 8 | ···/···· |
| How the youthful harlot’s curse | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Blasts the new-born infant’s tear, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And blights with plagues the marriage hearse. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.