TITLE:
On the Accusative Weapon of the Poetic Image of London in William Blake’s London against the Brutalities of English Realities
AUTHORS:
Jun Luo, Guijun Li
KEYWORDS:
London Image, Accusative Weapon, Cruelties and Brutalities, William Blake, London
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Literary Study,
Vol.6 No.2,
April
30,
2018
ABSTRACT: Although he has not been accepted as a famous
English poet by the mainstream consciousness of his poetic production at his
age, William Blake is now extensively regarded as one of the earliest and
greatest figures who have pioneered the early romanticism in English
literature. His typical poems have been discussed for a long time from various
perspectives but the role of the image of London in his emblematic poem London has rarely been touched by
scholars to make an exploration of the critical spirits of the poet. To attach
an academic importance on the academic values in this respect, this essay will
take London as an analytical sample
to justify that the image of London in William Blake’s London can be taken as an accusative weapon against the social
brutalities of England in reference to the social reality of that repressive
time based on a better analysis of the image of London in this poem from the
perspective of reflectionism in terms of the social oppression, class
repression, religious misconduct as much as liberal exploitation of English
society as what can be seen in the poetic images of this poem.