William Blake

London (Notebook)

'''London'''
I wander thro' each dirty street,
Near where the dirty Thames does flow,
And [see ''del.''] mark in every face I meet,

"mark" repetition

Blake repeats 'mark' three times in four lines—the word shifts from verb (to notice) to noun (a sign). He's watching suffering become visible, permanent, written on bodies.

Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every man,
In [every voice of every child ''del.''] every infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The [german ''del.''] mind forg'd [links ''del.''] I hear manacles I hear.
[But most ''del.''] How the chimney sweeper’s cry
[Blackens o'er the churches' walls, ''del.'']
Every black'ning church appalls,

Chimney sweeper detail

[CONTEXT: Child labor was legal; sweepers as young as 4 cleaned flues.] Blake uses a specific, real victim instead of abstract suffering. The 'blackening' of churches ties religious institutions to child exploitation.

And the hapless Soldier’s sigh

"blood down Palace walls"

The soldier's sigh becomes literal blood on the monarch's residence. Blake collapses metaphor into accusation—the king's walls are stained by those who die in his wars.

Runs in blood down Palace walls.
[But most the midnight harlot's curse
From every dismal street I hear,
Weaves around the marriage hearse
And blasts the new born infant's tear. ''del.'']
But most from every ''del.''] thro' wintry streets I hear
How the midnight harlot's curse
Blasts the new born Infant’s tear,
And [hangs ''del.''] smites with plagues the Marriage hearse.
But most the shrieks of youth I hear
But most thto' midnight & . . . .
Hw the youthful . . .
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

Blake's Indictment: Specific Victims, Not Abstractions

This is a notebook draft of "London" from *Songs of Experience* (1794), and Blake's revisions reveal his strategy. He keeps deleting generalizations and inserting specific, identifiable victims: the chimney sweeper, the soldier, the harlot. Each represents a class destroyed by London's systems—child labor, warfare, sexual commerce. The deletions show Blake refusing abstraction; he won't let readers feel sympathy for 'suffering' in the abstract. You must see the sweep's soot, hear the soldier's literal blood.

The poem's structure moves through these victims like an accusation building a case. Notice how each stanza introduces a new voice or cry—'every man,' 'every infant,' 'every child.' Then specific institutions appear: churches, palaces, marriages. Blake isn't describing London; he's mapping how power structures use and discard people.

"Mind Forg'd Manacles": The Psychological Trap

The most famous line—"The mind forg'd manacles I hear"—is Blake's diagnosis of why London's victims stay trapped. The chains aren't imposed by guards; people forge them mentally through internalized obedience, shame, fear. This is why Blake emphasizes *hearing* throughout: he's listening to how people speak their own imprisonment into existence.

[CONTEXT: Blake wrote this during the French Revolution and Industrial Revolution, when London's population exploded and factory work became normalized.] The notebook shows Blake wrestling with how to make this psychological oppression visible. He tries different versions, finally settling on the idea that curses, cries, and sighs are the actual chains—the words people speak become the bars they're trapped behind. When the harlot's curse 'blasts' the infant, it's not metaphorical; it's the transmission of despair across generations, each person reinforcing the system that destroys them.