London

 

1 I wander thro' each charter'd street,
2 Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
3 And mark in every face I meet
4 Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

5 In every cry of every Man,
6 In every Infant's cry of fear,
7 In every voice, in every ban,
8 The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

9 How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
10 Every black'ning Church appalls;
11 And the hapless Soldier's sigh
12 Runs in blood down Palace walls.

13 But most thro' midnight streets I hear
14 How the youthful Harlot's curse
15 Blasts the new born Infant's tear,
16 And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

1. Review TP CASTT notes on how to find a theme in a poem.

2. Copy and paste the "London" onto your laptop; you will create a hypertext on the poem by answering the questions below.

3. Analyze three examples of diction, three pieces of imagery, and the rhyme to identify the tone of the poem

4. Based on the evidence in #3, state the tone of the poem

5. Using the TP CASTT, how to find theme link as a model, identify the theme in the poem

 

Diction
  1. "Palace"—This could apply to the royalty or government of the time.
  2. "blight"—Shows total destruction, especially when used with the words "plagues" and "hearse."
  3. "plagues"—The author is not saying that a plague is there, but that the destruction and horrible things in the city are like when there is a plague.

 

Imagery
  1. "Blasts the new born Infant’s tear"—This is an auditory image because you can imagine the sounds of the curses so loud that they cover the crying of the babies. It would be an image of lots of loud, sad noises.
  2. "In every cry of Every man/In every Infant’s cry of fear/In every voice"—This is another auditory image of sounds of unhappiness all over the city. The repeated use of the word "every" emphasizes that it involves the whole city.
  3. "mind ford’g manacles"—This is a visual picture of people in chains that tie them to their horrible life in the city. The word "mind" makes the image show that their thinking and not their bodies are in a prison.

Rhyme: Most of the author’s rhymes are of words that do not just rhyme but also have a relationship to each other in the poem. The meaning of the words that rhyme add to the meaning.

  1. "hear" and "tear"—The writer can hear the tears of the infant.
  2. "street" and "meet"—The author is describing what he sees and hears as he meets people in the street.
  3. "flow" and "woe"—Everywhere the river flows there is only the woe of unhappiness and despair.

 

The tone of the poem is of despair. The author only sees the sadness and hopelessness of the people of London, from the infants to the newlyweds to the soldiers.

The theme of the poem is that everyone in the city of London is miserable and suffering. The poet takes the reader through the city and points out that everything he sees and hears is of sadness. The last stanza when he compares what has happened in the city to a plague give the reader an idea of how complete the death of the city is

 

 1