On the Accusative Weapon of the Poetic Image of London in William Blake’s <i>London</i> against the Brutalities of English Realities
- 1 School of Foreign Languages, Zhaotong University, Zhaotong, China
- 2 School of Foreign Languages, Dianxi Normal University of Science and Technology, Lincang, China
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.
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