Example research essay topic: Point Of View Higher Authority - 975 words

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It condemns authoritative institutions including the military, royalty, new industries, and the Church. Blake's tone creates a feeling of informative bitterness, and is both angry and despondent at the suffering and increasing corruption of London's society. Blake's sophisticated use of notation like capitalization, his specific change in meter, and the point of view all clearly develop London. The point of view in which Blake employs to London is significant to the understanding of the poem.

Blake chooses to give the poem a persona, a person who appears to have extensive knowledge of the city and helps give credibility to the poem. (Foster, 1924) The use of first person in all three stanzas allows the poem to be more opinionated and less objective, drawing the reader's attention by making it more personal. Blake's London is to be the reader's London as well. In addition to point of view, Blake further sophisticates his piece by presenting specific tone to each section of the poem. Blake sets the tone early in the poem by using the word charter'd which shows the condition of London as repressive. The speaker refers to the people or "faces" he meets with "Marks of weakness, marks of woe. " This diction advocates the probability of the city being controlled by a higher authority. The faces of the people, or the face of society reveals the feelings of entrapment and misery in the population.

This in itself could propose, 'humanity itself is being commercialized' (Damon, 1965). One of the interesting aspects of Blake's poetry is the layers of meaning his words connote. Blake's advanced use of notation is evident through his utilization of capitalizing specific words to emphasize a point. Capitalization is repeatedly used in 'London' to stress a higher meaning than the literal interpretation. Blake's use of the phrase "every Man" again alludes to Blake's intention that the poem represents not just the common, man but also, common society. Similarly the title 'London' is used to represent the state of English society and to symbolizes the condition of every human society (Hirsch Jr. , 1964) Again 'Infants' is capitalized showing that there is something more than just a child the speaker meets.

Here Blake is exposing the innocence that has been corrupted due to the present evil. This line fills the readers' mind with a dreadful image of children being stripped away of their innocence. Here Blake specifically targets children, which are looked upon as pure and guiltless to help get his point across to the reader. Blake's genius is evident throughout the poem where his changing meter directly correlates to the point he is making at the moment. The meter is changed in the last line of the first stanza from iambic tetrameter to anapestic dimeter possibly to stress the section (Damon, 1965) The third stanza is anapestic for the first foot but then reverts to iambic for the last two feet of the line.

The speaker begins here by condemning main foundations like the Church and the military capitalizing both words. "The Chimney - sweepers cry" is basically an exposure to the child labor prevalent during this era. Once again he uses a child to symbolize an innocent victim terrorized by higher authority. Also, these cries are accusations against the Church. Blake uses the phrase "blackening Church" to expose the Church's function as a tyrant rather than a source of enlightenment (Lambert Jr. , 1995) This line illustrates the Church both blackened by soot and the exploited people who are forced to clean it.

At this point it is clear to the reader that Blake's representation of the church is ironically evil. It forces oppression on the people of the society. He exposes a "respected" authority that most know is corrupt. According to critic Stephen Lambert Jr.

author of an article featured in "The Explicator" he feels that "many critics fail to recognize not only that 'blackening Church' is a double entendre, but that as such it also plays an integral role in furthering one of the poem's major themes: the reflexive and cyclical nature of institutional oppression." This reinforces Blake's point by exposing the nature of these institutions to repeat their evils over and over again. Blake then again targets another major institution of society, the government. The bloodstain on the palace is only symbolic; the State was guilty of the slaughter of its own soldiers. Once again Blake takes a highly respected institution like the monarchy and ridicules it by exposing its iniquity through the killing of its own employees! Worst of all is the last stanza where Blake alludes to the condition of the "youthful Harlots", they killed love and infected mothers and children with gonorrhea and other diseases, which blinded the newborn babies (Damon, 1965) Hence the diction "Blast the new-born Infants tear." The poem reaches its climax as the speaker exposes the infants who were born into poverty. When Blake uses the contradicting phrase "Marriage hearse" in the last line it is significant because he combines something good with something bad (Lambert Jr. , 1995) Blake proposes the possibility that as long as powerful institutions corrupt society, marriage is always cursed.

Even though the joy of a new life is present, the fact that the child is born into a corrupt and evil society is discouraging. Blake suggests to the reader that until there is change this loop will continue. "London" is a poem of serious social satire directed against social institutions. According to Blake author Michael Phillips "it is a poem whose moral realism is so severe that it is raised to the intensity of apocalyptic vision. " Blake becomes more specific in his descriptions of the prevalent evil and moral decay of society as the poem progresses. Blake's informative nature is clearly evident in "London" as he 'points the finger' and exposes powerful institutions.

Research essay sample on Point Of View Higher Authority