Self-Made Misery in Blake's LondonThe poet William Blake paints a picture of the dirty and miserable streets of London in his poem 'London'. It describes the wretched from the bottom of society, the chimney sweeps, the soldiers and the prostitutes. These people cry out for their pain and the injustices they have suffered. The entire poem centers on the laments of these people and what they have become because of the wrongs done to them by the rest of society, mainly institutions such as the church and the government. But are these people really wrong? The poem seems to suggest that the injustices to which they have been subjected are caused by themselves. In Blake's poem he says that as he passes through London he sees a "sign in every face [that] meets [signs] of weakness, signs of doom." (3-4) He talks about how everywhere he hears cries of fear and repression. The church seems to ignore the cry of the poor chimney sweeper in lines nine and ten. The soldier dies on the palace walls with a sigh. These are examples of the misery of the lives people lead. The central idea...