ch (10) is an ambiguous phrase that plays an essential role in furthering the central theme: the reflexive and reoccurring nature of institutional oppression. The denotative and connotative language in the third stanza is consistent with and intensifies the poems sense. As an intransitive verb, blackening may describe the act of covering the Church and the Sweeper with soot. On the other hand, the blackning Church implies the gloomy emotions and attitudes that are interwoven in the poems language. In this sense, the Church is perhaps blackening the minds of the sweepers, menacling them to keep them bonded to her mystery and tyranny. The verb appalls (10), which is used to describe the action of the church, is a pun that achieves a very serious effect by virtue of the fact that the sweepers cry should horrify the church instead of taunt his misery.The meter changes in the last stanza of the poem to represent the immorality of the city it depicts. The image of the Harlot (14), or prostitute, is firmly directed away from what is right or good, as she passes corruption and disease to the newborn child (15); and then likewise to infect the Marriage institution (and, by association, the Church), ensuring an endless cycle of strict censorship and oppression. William Blake does not offer a certain resolution in the poems dnouement, or outcome, for this poisonous atmosphere that hangs over the squalid city. Moreover, the Harlot, Infant, and Church all appear equally restrained from freedom by an eternal and needlessly repetitive chain, or manacle, that ruins their hopes of survival. I am of the opinion however, that the poems finale, with its emphasis on reoccurrence, suggests that the liability for Londons miserable and filthy nature rests with somber repetition itself. William Blakes use of the elements of poetry balances the sense and sounds of his poem. I found the closely structured organization of the poem to be very useful in u...
