In his poem ‘London’ William Blake explores poverty, revolution and the power of the imagination. Dr Linda Freedman examines the original draft manuscript, to discover the meanings behind this iconic poem.

A brief analysis:
"Blake focuses his attention on the condition of London, England, the capital not only of the country but also of “culture,” yet, as the four stanzas make abundantly clear, Blake does not share the opinion that this city sets a positive example."

At first glance, Blake's lyric "London" seems to offer a simple indictment of the urban social climate which began to develop in the industrial West in the later eighteenth century. The lyric speaker analyzes the human suffering which he observes by attributing it to the faulty way of looking at the world, "the mind-forg'd manacles," which in his view the victims of city life have imposed on themselves. As the persona presents this analysis, however, the full complexity of Blake's interpretation of urban life emerges from the poem.