London . . . in your pants?

"In every cry of every man, / In every Infant's cry of fear, / In every voice, in every ban, / The mind-forged manacles I hear" ("London," 5-8).

I had the most trouble understanding Blake's poem out of all of them, so I'm going to embrace that and blog about my confusion. First of all, I did notice a few things that are probably key -- the dark, somber tone and the woeful motif of crying. Essentially, what I know for sure is that London is not such a happy place in this poem (litotes).

The third question asks for the meaning of line eight, which I quoted at the top. My best guess is that every person and infant in London is full of sorrow because they're restrained in some way. The only thing I can think of that would restrain them is the monarchy, which is kind of mentioned in the twelfth line. Speaking of which . . .

I don't understand the subsequent stanza at all. "And the hapless Soldier's sigh / Runs in blood down Palace walls" (11-12). The figurative "Soldier" is apparently unlucky and frustrated about something that has to do with the "Palace," which I think could be the crown, which has a lot of power to restrain (hence the "manacles").

And what about that last part? All I see is that there are prostitutes who "blast" the Infant's tear. So in addition to blaming the crown for London's woe, I think that Blake could also be blaming anyone (mostly prostitutes) who "blights" (16) the family.

I'm trying to be very honest with the things I don't understand about this poem. I think it's working. I'll add the label "ambiguity" because I think that could be going on here.