Video: London (Part 1)

﻿Hi, I'm Miss Walker. I hope you're doing well today. I'm going to be teaching you about the poem "London" by William Blake in today's lesson, in which we're going to look at the key context and the key ideas in the proem. You'll need a pen and paper for this session, so please pause the video now to make sure you've got the correct equipment and also to make sure that your working environment is clear of any distractions. Pause the video now to do so. Today's key question is how does Blake present suffering in "London"? In part one, I'll introduce you to the key word that you need to do today's lesson, which is deprivation, before going on to look at the context and background behind why Blake wrote the poem "London." In part three, I'll provide you with a reading of the poem, before we go on to establish the meaning behind it in part four. In part five, you'll take all your learning and understanding and put it together into a writing task, before finishing the lesson in part six, with a short review quiz. In this section, we're going to take a look at the word deprivation. The word is pronounced deprivation. Pause the video here if you want to practise saying that. The definition of deprivation is the lack of or withholding of materials or resources considered to be a necessity. So withholding money, food, or freedom, or sleep, that people need in order to live. Let's have a look at how it's used in the example sentences below. Low wages across the country mean that many people are living in deprivation. So money is holding them back. In example two, the levels of deprivation in Victorian England caused great suffering for poor people. This is evident in Dickens's a Christmas Carol. And now I want you to pause the video to complete this task. Which sentence has used deprivation correctly? Is it A, "The wealthy people lived in great deprivation," or B, "The lady suffered from sleep deprivation." Pause here for three, two, one, before I show the answer now. Brilliant. The correct response is B, "The lady suffered from sleep deprivation." She had been withheld of sleep. In this section, we'll look at the motivations behind why Blake wrote the poem. Blake was a deeply influential and important poet from South London. He held really strong feelings on the suffering and the injustices experienced by the poor people of London. He often took walks around the city to understand and to see the terrible effects of industrialization in the city. Important to know that Blake was religious, but he was opposed to the church and the monarchy, so the king at the time, for exploiting the people of London. The poem "London" features in a collection Blake's called "Songs of Innocence and of Experience." This poem is part of "Songs of Experience." Whilst the innocence poems are often positive and they celebrate the life of children, the experience poems such as "London" show a far darker side and awful corrupting effects of the modern life or modern life on people and the natural world. Pause the video to complete these tasks. One, how did Blake become aware of the suffering in London, and two, Blake was a religious man, however, he was angry at the church. What is the reason for this? Resume the video when you've completed the questions. Let's check the responses. On his walks around London, Blake became more aware of the suffering in the city. And Blake was angry at the church because he believed that they used people, they exploited them for their own advantage. Just to recall what London was like at the time, it was a deeply divided and troubled city. The poor often lived in these appalling, unsanitary, unclean conditions whilst those who governed them were extremely comfortable. They had a lot of money and a lot of luxuries in life. The growing inequality between rich and poor in the city was partly a result of the Industrial Revolution, which some of you may already know about. However, if you don't, it was a period of development in manufacturing and technical innovation, during which cities expanded as people moved from the countryside and farms to find factory work in the cities. Let's take a look at the corruption of the church, which means looking at its dishonest and immoral bad behaviour. So Blake felt strongly that the church took advantage of those it was supposed to help, particularly children. It was common for children to be taken into care by the church, and then used as unpaid labour in dangerous jobs, such as chimney sweeping, to make a profit for the church, and the children didn't see any of that money. The French Revolution is also another important factor in why Blake wrote the poem "London." In 1789 in France, people revolted. They rebelled and used violence and force against their monarch, the king. Many saw the French revolution as a model for how ordinary disadvantaged people could seize power away from those in charge. The English king had been neglecting his people by paying for useless wars where many lives were unnecessarily lost, which angered a lot of people, quite justifiably. Pause the video to complete these tasks. Question one. What were living conditions like for people in poverty in Britain at the time? And why did Blake feel inspired by the French Revolution? Here are the answers. Living conditions for people in poverty were unsanitary and appalling. Blake was inspired by the French Revolution because it demonstrated that people with less power in society could rebel, they could rise up against the most powerful. In this section, I'm going to read the poem "London" to you. In the grey box on the right hand side is the glossary, and there'll be a glossary for each of the four stanzas of the poems. Let's get started. "I wander thro' each charter'd street, near where the charter'd Thames does flow. And mark in every face I meet marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, in every Infants cry of fear, in every voice: in every ban, the mind-forg'd manacales I hear. How the Chimney-sweepers cry every blackning Church appals, and the hapless Soldiers sigh runs in blood down Palace walls. But most thro' midnight street I hear how the youthful Harlots curse blasts the new-born Infants tear and blights with plagues the Marriage hearse." So lots of suffering is depicted in the poem, from the suffering of the young chimney sweepers, the harlots, to the soldiers who are dying as a result of the palace. Let's now go on to establish more of an understanding and more meaning in this section. Let's start with a summary of each stanza. So stanza one, we learn that he's describing a walk through the city of London and he sees great deprivation, misery, and despair. The speaker in stanza two hears the cries of men and children and the curses of others, and imagines that they have mentally chained themselves up by believing that they are weak, that there is no escape from their suffering and their deprivation. In the third stanza, the speaker hears the cry of chimney sweepers and he thinks about the soot stained walls of the church that exploits them. He also imagines the blood of soldiers on the walls of the palace that sends them off to die. And finally, in the fourth stanza, the speaker hears the prostitutes and the crying babies. This highlights how there is no innocence or purity in London at this time. True or false? I'll read the statements. You'll decide whether they are true or false. One. The speaker finds out about the deprivation from a newspaper. Two. He witnesses suffering in every face he sees. Three. The people believe that they are weak. Four. The soldiers' blood stains the streets of London. Five. The speaker hears prostitutes, babies, and children crying. Pause the video here if you need to look back over those statements. If not, go straight onto the next slide. Number one is false. The speaker witnesses the deprivation on his walks across London. Numbers two and three are true. Number four is false. The soldiers' blood doesn't stay in the streets. It stains the palace walls, and actually in number five, he doesn't hear children and women crying. He only hears babies crying. For the rest of this section, we're going to look at groups of lines from the poem to establish meaning. Here's the first set of lines. "I wander thro' each charter'd street, near where the charter'd Thames does flow." One. What does the phrase "I wander" tell us that the speaker is doing in the poem? Two. Charter'd means that those in power have placed controls and rules over the streets, and even the river. What does this suggest about the London Blake lived in? Pause the video to complete the questions. Here are the responses that you could have had. The speaker is walking through the streets of London, probably without a destination in mind, hence he is wandering. The repetition of charter'd suggests that the city is under the tight control of those in power. Everything is under control, even the river, the Thames. It may even suggest that it's an oppressive place where something natural like the Thames is controlled. "And mark in every face I meet marks of weakness, marks of woe." The speaker sees suffering in every face. What does this show? What kind of emotions and feelings do you think Blake might be seeing on their faces that he considers marks of weakness and marks of woe? So marks of sadness. Pause the video here to complete the two questions. The use of every suggests that suffering is universal. Everyone is experiencing it. The speaker emphasises that all people in London are impacted by the power of the monarchy and the church. No one goes unharmed. Their weakness and sadness reflect feelings of hunger and frailty and deprivation. The people may feel powerless and lost as a result of this. "In every voice: in every ban, the mind-forg'd manacles I hear." Manacles are handcuffs or chains. Mind-forg'd means made in the mind. What do you think Blake means when he says that the people wear mind-forg'd manacles? How might this link to the French Revolution? Pause the video here to complete the two questions. So Blake is implying that people believe they are so weak that they can't challenge those in power. So they've chained themselves to this idea, and this mindset imprisons them and prevents them for fighting for change 'cause they believe they can't do it. And this links to the French Revolution because it makes Blake and others realise that the people were strong, if only they chose to believe it, and only if they chose to act together. He is stating here that the people of London are keeping themselves in prison because they are choosing to. If they decided to, they could take power. "How the Chimney-sweepers cry every blackning Church appals." By saying the chimney-sweepers' cries, what is Blake suggesting about the chimney sweepers? To appal means to horrify or shock. Why is Blake horrified and disgusted by the behaviour of the church? Think about the context there. What is the meaning of the blackning Church? Consider the soot and ash swept from the chimneys by the children. Pause the video to complete the three questions. Blake is suggesting that the children are distressed, weak, and they deserve our pity. Blake is horrified by the exploitative nature of the Church. It is shocking that something like the Church, which should be charitable and kind, will take advantage of young children in order to make money. The black Church could represent the corruption of the church. Also blackning may refer to the soot and ash from the chimneys, which represents the lives of the chimney sweepers in London. "And the hapless Soldiers sigh runs in blood down Palace walls." Why might the soldiers be described as hapless, meaning unfortunate? How does this quotation display suffering? Blake challenges powerful people in their palaces, which are marked by the blood of good people, the good soldiers. Why is he angry with the soldiers being killed? Pause the video to complete the questions. The soldiers are unfortunate because they have no control over their own lives. They are a tool of an unfeeling king. Soldiers were sent to fight and many innocent lives were lost and the suffering is presented in the soldiers' death and the blood's running down the wall. It also refers to the suffering of the families who would have lost their sons, who went away to fight, and we'll say their husbands as well. Blake challenges the monarchy, the king, because they were responsible for spending a lot of money on fighting in other countries, rather than using the money to help reduce, to help alleviate deprivation in Britain. Here's a final set of lines that we're going to focus on. In the first two lines of this group, the curse refers to the sexually transmitted diseases that were common amongst prostitutes. Blake is suggesting that men would catch the diseases and transmit them to their wives, who would then pass them on to their babies during birth. Why has this speaker linked the ruin of marriage with the harlot's curse? Pause the video to answer the question. Linking the harlot's curse and the marriage hearse reinforces the idea that everyone in the city is suffering. The harlots live a life of hardship and risk dying from the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. Unexpectedly, people who are getting married are also suffering. Marriage is typically thought of as something that's a joyful and hopeful event. The start of a new family, a new life, a new opportunity. However, the proliferation, which means the rapid spread of diseases, means that that is also ruined by death. With our newly acquired understanding of the poem and the context, we are going to take that, and we're going to apply it to a writing task. In this section, you're going to write a summary of the ways in which Blake shows the suffering of people of London in his poem. Be sure to include the descriptions of deprivation and signs of suffering in the city. Also include the speaker's attitude to the institutions that cause this suffering. You must include all of the words and phrases below in your summary. They are deprivation, suffering, French Revolution, child labour, church corruption, and disease. Pause the video to spend roughly 10 to 15 minutes writing your summary. There will be examples on the next two sides that you can compare your answer to once you have written it. Here's the first example. On his walk through London, the speaker witnesses the suffering of many people. The speaker describes the misery and weakness on the faces of the people living in poverty: soldiers, chimney sweepers, prostitutes, and their newborn babies who suffer from the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. The speaker blames the corruption of the church and the king for the deprivation in London. The church did very little to prevent child labour and look after young and vulnerable people in society. Blake seems to hint that the people could take power, and so end their suffering, hinting at the French Revolution. The second example is slightly more developed. As the speaker wanders through the chartered streets of London, he illustrates the severe deprivation and suffering which permeates the city at the hands of the palace and the corruption of the church. The speaker lists the marks of woe on the face of soldiers, chimney sweepers, prostitutes, and their newborn babies, who suffer from the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Blake appears to criticise institutions like the church for failing to prevent child labour and the suffering of the young and vulnerable members of society. Blake believed that the people of London could revolt, inspired by the French Revolution of 1789 and the uprising against the French king. So pause your video here to compare your answer either to this one or the previous example. Great. So the lesson's nearly finished. There's just a short, five-question multiple choice review quiz for you to complete. Once you're finished, come back to the video to get the final message. In this lesson we have learned about Blake's motivations for writing the poem "London," which depicts great suffering in the city. With all the work you have done, if you'd like to share it with Oak National, please ask your parent or carer to share the work on Twitter, tagging at @OakNational and hashtag #LearnwithOak. In next lesson, we'll be looking at the language form and structure that Blake has used to depict the key ideas in the poem. I'll see you then.

Exit Quiz: London (Part 1)

Completed: London (Part 1)

In this lesson, we will explore the meaning and key ideas presented in William Blake's poem 'London'. You will be provided with key information about the context of the poem to help you understand Blake's motivations for writing it.

English

London (Part 1)

Video

Final Quiz

Lesson Complete