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LONDON. This poem is taken from “Songs of Experience” of 1794. It reveals the author”s feelings toward the society that he lived in: he is against the industrial society of his time. So he describes the terrible living conditions of London inhabitants. Reading the first stanza we can already understand that there is a first person narrator because the first word of the poem is the “I” pronoun. The poet is the only person who can see things that common people can’t see, so the poet is the one who can reach the truth. The speaker wanders through the streets of London and comments on his observations. The use of the term “chartered” suggests that the streets of London, and even the Thames itself are controlled and rigid, they are increasingly the subject of government control. He is not walking in a free, open field, but a confined, rigid area: this is an allusion to the ways in which social life is constricted, confined, repressed, etc. Other words in the poem like "manacles," and "ban," (manette e divieto) for example, suggest this same idea, which is the main theme of the poem: industrial city life and society metaphorically imprisons and oppresses people taking away their vitality and freedom. The poet sees despair in the faces of the people he meets and hears fear and repression in their voices Also in the second stanza the expression “I hear” highlights that the poet is a sort of prophet who can see behind things. In line 8, the poet introduces a metaphor with a universal meaning: he says that, from the cry of the newbom infant to the cry of the full grown man, he hears the “mind forg’d manacles”, This reveals his despairing view of mankind. The “manacles” are some kind of chain that keeps a person imprisoned. The fact that these chains are “mind forg’d” reveals that they are metaphorical chains created by the people’s own ideas: rationalism, in particular, has produced mental chains, has canceled imagination and prevented the full expression of human personality. The thing that really imprisons or manacles the people the speaker meets is the way they think, the way they approach life. The use of the word “ban” reveals that the manacles are placed there by society. A ban is a restriction given by law: according to the poet, political and social institutions have forged men”s mind so that they do what government wants them to do. In the third stanza, Blake condemns the institutions that are responsible for the social problems of the time and implies that the chains worn by the people and inflicted by society have some disastrous results. He begins with the Chimney sweeper. He is one of the poorest of society and is forced into this kind of work in order to provide for their families. Then, the speaker attacks the “black’ning Church” because it doesn’t make anything to avoid children’s exploitation and forgets the truth and original religious spirit. Often, in fact, the chimney sweepers are just children. They are small enough to fit down the chimneys. These children are often orphaned children, and the church is responsible for them. This explains why the author ties the chimney sweepers with the “blackening church”. The speaker then turns his attentions to the “hapless soldier”. He has already criticized society, pointed out the misfortunes of the poor and the hypocrisy and corruption of the church, and now he will also criticise Monarchy (represented by the Palace), because it puts at risk soldiers’ life who stand guard outside the royal palaces: the soldiers are the poor victims of a corrupt government. Blake reveals also his feelings toward war by describing the blood that runs In the fourth stanza Blake condemns Marriage that brings to prostitution because it reduces men*s freedom. At that time there weren”t love-marriages but people got married only for interest. For this ca on and because of the unemployment, women of low social classes became prostitutes; this ion brought to moral degradation of society, determined the birth of illegitimate children 
