, Near where the charterd Thamesdoes flow, And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe.(Lines 1 - 4) London, a city of millions, with very few who are wealthyenough to own land. In a subtle way, Blake tells us that every inch ofLondon is owned the charterd streets, the charterd Thames. It is areflection of the immaturity of our culture that we allow just 5% of theworlds population to control 80% of the worlds wealth , leaving most inutter poverty. This is especially true today: the United States frequentlydumps excess farm and dairy produce to keep their market price high,rather than share the excess food with the hungry people of the world.During Blakes time, the world was not in such excess as it is today. Itseems that in our culture, the more we have, the more we waste. How theChimney-Sweepers cry Every blackning Church appalls, And the haplessSoldiers sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls. (!Lines 9 - 12) Every potent word of these four lines inject emotions ofgrief, hopelessness, and death: the images of the childs cry, theblackning Church, and blood on Palace walls. The words force us to mournthe decline of Londons society. The history of the child enslavement ofchimney sweepers, during Blakes time, was a horrid inhumanity tochildren. Great Britain and other western nations would like to praisethemselves for abolishing this sort of slavery. However, the inhumanity ofchild enslavement is more true today than in the seventeen and eighteenhundreds. The sin of enslavement is even more heightened, becauseneocolonialism and multinational corporations have moved their inhumanebusiness practices to developing countries, where they may take advantageof the desperation and poverty of those areas. In addition, the disturbingimages of slavery are hidden from westerners who respect the success ofmultinational corporations. Yes, Blakes poem is very relevant t!oday. It is difficult to choose among William Butler Yeats most time...
