Blake walks through the streets of London and hears suffering everywhere: in children's cries, soldiers' sighs and "The mind-forged manacles" that hold people down. This free worksheet has the full poem with numbered lines, vocabulary, five discussion questions, a writing prompt and an answer key. No signup needed.
Grades 9–12 · Common Core RL.9-10.4, RL.9-10.2, RL.9-10.5 · US Letter PDF, with an answer key on the last page
What’s on the worksheet
"London" appeared in Blake's Songs of Experience (1794). London was growing fast and was full of poverty; young children worked as chimney sweeps, and the French Revolution had made the government fearful of protest. The poem has four four-line stanzas rhyming ABAB. Note: stanza 4 refers to prostitution ("harlot"); teachers may wish to preview it.
Vocabulary
- chartered: owned, mapped and controlled by law or business
- ban: a curse; also an official ban or law
- manacles: handcuffs, chains
- appals: horrifies; also covers in a pall (a dark cloth)
- hapless: unlucky
- harlot: an old word for a prostitute
- blasts: destroys
- blights: spoils, infects with disease
- hearse: a vehicle that carries a coffin
Discussion questions
- What does the speaker see "in every face" he meets?
- Blake repeats "chartered" and "every." What is the effect of this repetition?
- What are "mind-forged manacles"? Who might have made them?
- In stanza 3, how are the church and the palace connected to the suffering of the chimney sweeper and the soldier?
- Explain the phrase "the marriage hearse." Why is it a shocking combination?
Writing prompt
Walk (in person or in memory) through a place you know well. Write a poem of 3–4 stanzas about what you see and hear there that others might overlook.
The answer key is included in the PDF, on its own page for teachers.