‘London’ by William Blake Exploring Blake’s use of noun phrases for description You could use this sequence to support students’ understanding of ‘linguistic analysis’, as required at GCSE.

London by William Blake street Thames face weakness woe cry man infant fear ban manacles chimney sweeper church soldier sigh blood palace walls streets harlot curse tear plagues hearse Look at the nouns Blake chooses to show people, places, objects and feelings. Can you see any links or patterns? Invent different headings under which you can group them e.g. ‘human emotions’. What impression of London does Blake give you through his choice of nouns? How does Blake name people, places and states/feelings in his poem and what does this tell us about his view of the city? Ban (prohibition, restriction) TASK: Sort the nouns under different headings of your own devising e.g. Professions/trades Confinement/imprisonment References to the body Institutions

Look at the way Blake gives us more detail about the people, places, objects and feelings in his poem through expanded noun phrases. The extra information added to the head noun changes (or modifies ) how we see things: how would you explain the difference between ‘streets’ and ‘midnight streets’ or between ‘hearse’ and ‘the Marriage hearse’? How many different patterns can you see in the way these noun phrases are formed? Which word is repeated most often? Why? Noun phrases give us a complete picture or idea. Which ones from the poem do you find most unusual, thought-provoking or puzzling? each charter’d street the charter’d Thames every face marks of weakness marks of woe every cry of every Man every Infant’s cry of fear every voice every ban the mind-forg’d manacles the Chimney-sweeper’s cry every blackning Church the hapless Soldier’s sigh Palace walls midnight streets the youthful Harlot’s curse the new-born infant’s tear the Marriage hearse How does the additional detail provided in noun phrases alter how we see the people, places, objects and feelings in his poem? Noun phrases here are formed with determiners (each, every, the); adjectives (the Marriage hearse; blackning church), other nouns (cry of fear; marks of woe)

I wander thro' each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,  And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, In every Infant’s cry of fear, In every voice: in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.  How the Chimney-sweepers cry Every blackning Church appals,  And the hapless Soldier’s sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls.  But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlot’s curse Blasts the new-born Infant’s tear  And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.  What do you notice about the use of noun phrases now you can see them in the context of the whole poem? Are there any other language features that you would want to focus on? How do they enhance the meaning of the poem? Noun phrases take up most of the poem! They paint an unremitting picture of London as a place of hardship, tedium, inequality and injustice. Obvious other language focus might be anaphora – deliberate repetition of structure: ‘in every cry of every Man, in every infant’s cry of fear’ etc. Co-ordination of clauses is also marked, ‘And..And…But...And’ – emphasises unchanging nature of desperate scenes with worst example signalled in final stanza.