AQA Power and Conflict

London Quotes3 key quotes with full analysis.

A bleak first-person walk through London that exposes the suffering, poverty and oppression of the city's people.

by William Blake

Context

Published in Blake's Songs of Experience (1794). Blake was a radical who criticised the monarchy, the Church and the exploitation of the poor during the Industrial Revolution.

All London Quotes

“In every cry of every Man, in every Infant's cry of fear, in every voice, in every ban, the mind-forg'd manacles I hear”
PowerAnger and Protest

Context: The speaker walks the streets of London and hears the suffering of its people.

Analysis

The repetition of "every" emphasises that suffering is universal and inescapable in the city. "Mind-forg'd manacles" is the central image: the chains are mental, created by oppressive institutions and the people's own acceptance of them. Blake attacks the way the powerful psychologically imprison the poor.

Language Techniques:

AnaphoraMetaphorAuditory imagery

Exam Tip

Key quote for power of the powerful over the powerless. "Mind-forg'd manacles" suggests oppression is internalised. Link to Blake's anger at the monarchy and Church.

“I wander thro' each charter'd street, near where the charter'd Thames does flow”
PowerAnger and Protest

Context: The opening lines establish the oppressive, owned cityscape.

Analysis

The repetition of "charter'd" suggests everything — even the natural River Thames — is owned and controlled by the powerful. That a flowing river can be "charter'd" shows how total this control is. "Wander" implies aimlessness and entrapment within the mapped, commercialised streets.

Language Techniques:

RepetitionSymbolismFirst person

Exam Tip

Use for the theme of control and ownership. Contrast the unstoppable nature of a river with its being "charter'd" — even nature is commodified.

“How the youthful Harlot's curse blasts the new-born Infant's tear, and blights with plagues the Marriage hearse”
Anger and ProtestPower

Context: The final stanza presents the bleakest image of the city's moral and physical decay.

Analysis

The oxymoron "Marriage hearse" fuses life (marriage) and death (hearse), suggesting that even union brings disease and ruin. "Blasts" and "blights" convey the destructive spread of sexually transmitted disease across generations. Blake ends on hopelessness, indicting a society that exploits the vulnerable.

Language Techniques:

OxymoronViolent verbsCyclical imagery

Exam Tip

Powerful closing quote. The "Marriage hearse" oxymoron is exam gold for showing how Blake corrupts ideas of love and life.

Compare London With…

In the exam you compare two poems on a shared theme. These poems share themes with London:

OzymandiasPercy Bysshe ShelleyMy Last DuchessRobert BrowningThe Charge of the Light BrigadeAlfred Lord TennysonStorm on the IslandSeamus Heaney

Explore More Power and Conflict Poems

View key quotes and analysis for all 15 poems in the AQA anthology.

All Power and Conflict QuotesPractice with English Genie