The historical background played very important role in the romantic writings during the 18th and 19th centuries. . There are external factors which maybe considered as the historical background of romantic poetry which are: the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the wars of national independence in Poland, Spain, and Greece, the outbreak of war between Britain and revolutionary France in 1793, and the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. King George iii was corrupted. He ruled for more than fifty-nine years with his corrupted son, the prince. They were concerning only about their interests and ignoring the basic simple needs of the common innocent people. The rules are called ''leeches'', insects which suck the blood of the people. The church who supposes to be the source of the faith, justice, integrity and hope, it stopped working according to the religion books; instead it was working in favour of the king and his followers. The army who should give sense of safeness and protect the people rights were used as swords and killing tools in the hands of the king to suppress and constrain the people by keeping them full of fear and surrounded by chains. The parliament also was not free, they twisted the constitution and the roles according to the king desires and benefits against the innocent people interests. As a result, the ordinary people were suffering from extreme poverty, starvation and misery. They worked as slaves in the properties of the king, surrounded by many constrain and chains limited their freedom and confiscated their simple human rights. They lost hope in life and fall in huge despair.
Blake was expressing the feelings of the society and their suffering. This demonstrates in the second stanza, (Lyric). The poet write strong sentence that give us meaning beyond it's original one. For example in the last second stanza ''the mind-forget manacles I hear'' this are not physical chains but the poet used to express that people are not free and scared to think in freedom and get their rights. (Transcendence). Blake expressed in many clauses in his poem how the children are suffering from the government. For example '' in every infant's cry of fear.. Blasts the new born infant's tear'' this alludes the pain of those children who will cry from the fear. (Childhood). The rhyme scheme in this poetry is; ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH.
In the first stanza the poet narrated that the king considered the country as his own properties '' chartered street and chartered Thames''. Chartered means a document by the corporation, the charters were given by government and nobody has the right to use this street just the friends of the king. In the 3rd and 4th lines we can see the sadness and weakness on the faces of the people due to the corruption of the monarchy. Blake mentioned that they were distributing the business on their followers without concerning about the poor people.
The poet used the word '' every'' several times in the second stanza to indicate the fear, weakness and the suffering of the people in the society. Blake used this repetition to empathize on the extreme misery if the common people.
In the 1st line of the third stanza, Blake used symbolic image by comparing the people with the Chimneysweeper who suffer from the poisonous dirt of the chimney '' how the chimney sweeper's cry'' as indication that the chimney sweeper is the people who cried from the dirt of the rulers. In the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lines the poet express the corrupt of the church and army who were not free either because the king used them as fatal tools against the common people '' runs in blood down palace walls''.
The poet shows that even the harlot is cursing here day of born and even here children will be affected. The harlot mostly works in the night to avoid the people talk as the freedom can not be achieved by the people and appear in the daylight. In the last two lines the poet used a great device called '' OXYMORON'' when saying '' marriage hearse'' it is a very gloomy image to describe the wedding carriage as death carriage. Blake used two opposite symbolic ideas to contrast the meaning. This image shows that the marriage and the death became same in their eyes because they lost the hope neither in family or future. The poet used hearse instead of carriage because in that time marriage die before it start.
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