blight- a thing that spoils or damages something.

“Blights” = dis-figuration – plosive ‘B’ repeated from previous line (“Blasts”) – sound harsh – the harsh reality of life in London

With marriage often comes new life – the creation of new beginnings – adding to the problems already experienced in London at the time (poverty and children on the streets/orphanages)
People marrying for convenience – women stripped of their independence when they marry – lose their possessions

Could also be a metaphor for the industrial revolution – it was supposed to be a new beginning for society like marriage is associated with but instead it ends up killing it, polluting nature and corrupting the young and innocent. The marriage hearse sums ups Blake’s feeling towards the industrial revolution and how it was ruining society

I think that the phrase ‘marriage hearse’ juxtaposes the joy of marriage and the misery of death. I think that Blake is suggesting that the government has destroyed everything in the Londoner’s life that is or once was considered ‘good’.

You could say that a hearse has connotations of death and unhappiness, thus, when a marriage occurred, the woman’s happiness metaphorically dies because she had to investigate the male’s philandering and promiscuity

“Marriage” is often thought to be a new beginning and a “Hearse” carries the dead to the end. The oxymoron is significant of the beginning vs the end.

could also suggest that governments are teaching kids that marriage is not a commute rather to have fun. Furthermore it could also suggest that the tradition of marriage is dying because of young men going to prostitutes rather then getting married. This could suggest the word hearse.

this is also a cyclical structure to show how the lower class is trapped in poverty and control

It could also suggest that right from birth a child is predestined to suffering and pain when born in London. The suffering of the city is inescapable and ‘every’ person is damned to it from birth.

I agree. It is as if the chain of social disease links the oppressions of sex trade with the oppressions of marriage: as if both sexual outlets, the 2 options for sexual experience, are both the same, both ‘manacled’, both sick with literal and mental disease. A bold assertion even now.

The acrostic could also be a request to the reader to listen to the london public, and consider helping them

Context = The french revolution was influenced by the enlightenment. It developed into bloodshed and chaos. There was so much bloodshed that the hyperbolic phrase ‘blood was running down the walls’ became popular of that time.
Effect ~ blake’s message = Blake is bitter at the monarchy for not helping the poor, as they don’t even help their own soliders, who die for them, even though they have enough money to stop it

The mention of “palace” walls is a reference to the French Revolution when the people stormed the Tuileries Palace, suggesting a revolution could happen.

I think that the ‘blood’ belongs to the soldiers mentioned in the line previously. They have sacrificed their lives for the monarchy, and this has left a mark. The people of London are sacrificing things for their monarchy but are getting neglected in return

Blake might even be suggesting that a revolution might be futile, as the ‘blood running down palace walls’ emphasizes its impenetrability and strength. rendering it useless to attempt to break apart the gap between the rich and the poor, due to sheer physical impossibility.

My period blood taste like pennies boi ❤️❤️

Perhaps it also shows that the existence of the lower class citizens is futile in the grand scheme of things. The ‘blood’ which represents the lower class is not permanent and can easily be washed away, whereas the palace walls (aristocracy) are strong and royal, with the intention of lasting for generations. This could represent that ultimately, it will always be the aristocracy/monarchy that survives, and that the rebellions and revolutions of the poor will be inferior and futile in comparison.

This could also depict that the upper society are to blame for the atrocities that the reader sees and hears in the poem. The blood running shows us that the upper class is soaked in it and Blake implies that the stain will never be removed as when blood stains it want be removed easily

HEAR is something biblical. It’s related to Timon of Athens.

Also it’s related to the things he heard through London.

Doesnt state what hear could suggest

What does the acrostic suggest?