Analysis of Blake's London In the method of formal approach to critical analysis, it is essential to read William Blake's “London” mechanically. Blake uses his rhetorical skills of alliteration, imagery, and word choice to create his poetry, but more importantly to express the underlying emotional meaning. William Blake's poem, "London," is obviously a painful poem. In the first two stanzas, Blake uses alliteration and word choice to create a sad atmosphere. Blake introduces his reader to the narrator as he "wanders" through the "chartered" society. A society where every person he sees has "signs of weakness, signs of misfortune." Blake repeatedly uses the word “every” and “weeping” in the second stanza to symbolize the depression that hangs over the entire society. The "mind-forged handcuffs" that the narrator feels suggest that he is not mentally stable. In the third stanza, Blake uses images of destruction and religion. This image is a paradox, implying some religious destruction such as the apocalypse. The "chimney sweep's cry" symbolizes society trying to clean up the ashes that cause their depressed state. Blake uses the religious imagery of the "dark church" to represent society's loss of innocence and abandonment of religion. The use of soldiers creates an imagery of war. The “sigh of the unlucky soldier” symbolizes how men are drafted into war and have no choice but to serve their country. As these soldiers reluctantly march to the beat of the country's mighty drum, they know that their lives will be taken, for their "sigh runs in blood along the palace walls." Blake uses this sense of destruction to explain how people are forced to repair the "weakness" and "misfortune" of their society. The fourth stanza of "London" reveals the complex meaning of the poem. The "Curse of the Young Harlot" symbolizes how the young woman's sinful actions will affect the next generation. Their "curse" causes the "newborn's tear" which exemplifies how the new generation will have to correct the mistakes of the previous generation.