o break out of the "manacles" which society had set for the poor.London and many of Blakes other works with a similar theme, particularly those from songs of experience strike a particular nerve for those who are living in a society where the cost of living compared with income is steadily increasing, where diseases are becoming increasingly common, and where the public is becoming increasingly disillusioned about the reliability and trustworthiness of politicians. Poems like London are those which can still be applied to cities today, which seem to be rapidly desensitising itself to the "marks of weakness, marks of woe" which we are well accustomed to seeing on faces of passers by today....
