Blake's "London" And "The Garden Of Love"

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worlds, for example, "The
Chimney Sweeper," "London," and "The Garden of Love."
In "London," Blake reveals that this hypocrisy has robbed the world
of innocence and spirit. In the first two lines, Blake repeats the word
"charter'd." He uses this repetition to stress the mechanical behavior of
the world around him. The word "charter" has connotations of something that
can be sold or hired for money. Blake is connecting this idea with the
chartered rights of
Englishmen given three hundred years ago by the crown and never to
be taken away. By using the subject “street,” and the river “Thames,”
Blake is announcing to the world that this structural society has even
corrupted nature. In the next two lines he comments on the beaten men of
society: “. . . every face I meet / Marks of weakness, marks of woe." This
behavior is the thief of the individual's innocence as the city of London
represents what is manmade: "In every voice, in every ban, / the mind-fog
manacles ...

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in a single sentence we should say that a mind molded in the
primeval intellectual world which gave rise to the Book of Job. . . then
launched into the meaner London life. . ."(Hutton 13:164). Blake is a
crusader for social equality. He only desires the injustice to cease which
is the thought that prevails throughout the poem.
In "The Garden of Love," Blake criticizes the Church for being the
instrument of decay on the souls of the youth. In the first two lines of
the poem, Blake reveals that upon looking at the Church he sees something
new: "I went to the garden of Love, / And saw what I never had seen." He
then states that the Church has infringed on the youth, ...

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