Rorschach of London
London by William Blake Norton Introduction to Literature page 658
Blake draws a stark and driving theme in regard to the harsh city of London. The intimation that the city is harsh and cold and man-made for the purpose of pain and suffering cries out loud in each resounding line. The poem forces the reader to feel the dirty streets of London and invites them to hear the raucous creatures that occupy the city with vapid souls or repressed persona. The author is obviously the hero of the story, calling things as they are despite the fact that he may come to further harm by the oppressive city for his insolent cry. A parallel can be drawn to the nuclear age, and the cold war, and the view of a society that is increasingly uncaring in cities that are dirty, crowded and harsh. It can be seen that no hope existed previously, nor will it in the future, or so it would seem from the observations made.
Rather than a call for change, Blake seeks to expose London for what it is, and it could be imagined in his mind he was thinking; “These are the same mindless peasants from the past three hundred years, someone needs to put some truth in black and white so people can see where they live and desire change.” He seems hopeless about the whole affair of man, and only seeks to illustrate observations that a man might encounter in London. It seems like he feels that he has resorted to this brutal commentary out of desperation to force people to look at their life and their environment. Blake tears down the very establishment that would be the savior of the people in times of trouble. The Church and The Palace, normally the answer for the lowly when seeking solace or reform are themselves dying or dead authorities, with examples like; “Every black’ning Church appalls”, and “And the hapless Soldier’s sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls.” There is no safety.
In modern literature, this gut check for a city reminds me of the character named Rorschach who was a washed up Super Hero from The Watchmen graphic novel by Alan Moore. It is a set piece in 1985 during the cold war, and contained journal entries from his observations. At one point he observes the aftermath and evidence of a car peeling out on top of a dog and the blood in the gutter, and goes on to embellish that the gutters were bursting with violence and blood, and equates whores to politicians, and remarks how the filth is overwhelming. Rorschach said that one day they would cry out to him for help, and that he would answer; “No.” This is a great parallel to that time and attitude displayed by Blake. There is no place to hide from Nuclear weapons and fallout, and crime being rampant in the inner city, with no hope in sight, humanity loses a sense of itself, and becomes a beast of burden in an uncaring world.
It seems as if, in this poem, Blake was observing every station a person has in life, and how the vile and corrupt city touched even the most innocent, from infants, to working class chimney-sweepers, to those in the hierarchy of royalty and the church. The most innocent things one could conceive at that time such as the purity of an innocent child, or Newlyweds and the flowering of new love in a chaste marriage go on to be dragged through the street and equated with decay, suffering and death. It is as if anything good at all will not escape being sullied by sadness as illustrated by tears, or physical discomfort and weakness, and even if the body were free of the plagues of the unclean things in the city, the people’s minds are manacled and imprisoned in thought as well as in their prison of filth.
When compared to Ode to a Nightingale (Keats page 1031) we at least have a comparison of a lost youth and vitality. Language and style of poetry are markedly different, but Keats romanticizes even death, and there is at least a person who lived, and life falls away with the passage of time. The people observed in the city in Blake’s “London” come from uncaring man-made misery, and continue in that misery until death. There was no glimmer of hope to be found, even by the most vital and optimistic Marriage. A Marriage doomed to death and destruction by plague.
Having this work out in the open during the romantic period of poetry, must have stood in stark contrast to the love poems being generated constantly. It seems as if the poem was almost like the emergence of reality television in the 1990’s. Where reality television was a breaking of the fourth wall, and an example of how everything else is just acting, Blake’s poem seems to say; “You are all wasting your time sniffing cut and dying flowers while you are buried up to your shoulders in the fecal matter that is London.” It could be considered a call to each Englishman to stop living in a fantasy world, and get real, and fix things that need fixing.
Gone were the days when the church was unquestioned, and when the crown was absolute authority. When Blake wrote “London”, the English had put a century between themselves and Regicide as well as the unwieldy rule of Oliver Cromwell. Continued failure by King and Church had put the country in a downward spiral. The industrial revolution was just about to begin, but London itself was a “wretched hive of scum and villainy” (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope). Blake would likely have hoped that this poem would be a call to arms to begin cleaning up London, cleaning up after repeated military blunders of the American Revolution and the constant military stress of the other English colonies, finally pushing England into poverty. The line; “And the hapless Soldier’s sigh”, we can seek that Blake’s picture of the military was less than complimentary, but also implies the weariness of a misused military, and how the sighs of discontent and weariness are met with the walls of the Palace. This is a picture of soldiers who are impotent to affect change, and meandering without real purpose.
It was likely important to impart a vivid inspirational illustration of the problems London and England faced, and it is doubtful that anyone could fully disagree with Blake. It is Blake who is calling on the Victim to become the Victor, simply by putting down in words the vile nature of the people’s habitat.
Despite Rorschach’s claim that he would not help mankind in their hour of need, and even knowing his disgust with what humanity had brought upon itself, when it came down to a choice between maintaining a lie regarding the designed death of millions to force humanity to unite, and facing death himself, Rorschach chose death over dishonesty and treachery. It is impossible to know for sure what Blake thought might happen to him after his less than flattering description of The Church, and The Crown. Blake was unafraid to call things as they were, and to show the ugly truth. He had no fear when he wrote, and would have likely died for his craft. Both situations are a picture of a man who is trying to call attention to a problem that is affecting everyone. It is no misguided generality that is being directed toward the powers that be. Blake indicts the morality of the people, true, but he also illustrates that the people of London are in need. That the people of London are marked by woe and fear, and fear threat of imprisonment and threat of harsh judgment coupled with death. Night is a terrifying time in London, and whatever occurs in darkness steals innocence and destroys the pure.
The imagery presented is pointed and clear in Blake’s poem. London’s description would make any tourist fear traveling there; much like the average American would have feared travelling to Moscow in the 1980’s. In this case, Blake’s case was only a small part propaganda, and in large part a good way to tell Londoners to take a look in the mirror, and to see what they had become. If that image spurred them to action, then so much the better and the future may not be as bleak as the lack of hope in the poem.
