Blake: The Psychopathic Wanderer Of London

1794 - Songs of Experience

London

by William Blake

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 Infants cry of fear,

In every voice; in every ban,

The mind-forg'd manacles I hear

How the Chimney-sweepers cry

Every black'ning Church appalls,

And the hapless Soldiers sigh

Runs in blood down Palace walls

But most thro' midnight streets I hear

How the youthful Harlots curse

Blasts the new born Infants tear

And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse

"London", by William Blake, allows us to eavesdrop on the thoughts of a midnight wanderer who stalks the streets of London laying judgment to all he sees. As part of his book of poetry, written in 1789, "London" was included in the section named "Songs of Experience" (as opposed to "Songs of Innocence"). Every poem of the book has an "experienced" and an "innocent" counterpart, save this one. The mind of Blake's wanderer is the mind of a sociopath. The narrator of the piece is disgusted with all around him and all that London represents. He seems to hold the babies, the soldiers, the whores and the church accountable for the state of the city. He displays the abnormal tendencies of what would be considered, in modern psychology, an antisocial personality. Perhaps there is no innocent counterpart to this poem for the man in this poem has lost his innocence. There is no complement to the mind of a person who, for all intents and purposes, has lost touch with the his fellow man.

The fact that the narrator in this piece is wandering, rather than walking or strolling, is significant. The act of wandering is associated with a lack of purpose, or destination, to a journey. The wanderer in this story states no intention for his activity. He feels no compulsion to explain why he is walking the streets of London at night, gazing at all the faces of all he sees. When he says "and mark in every face I meet" (LC p52 .3) he is saying that he is watching, noticing, and examining, every other person that is out in the city with him. It is not customary for most to do this sort of thing, but the wanderer of London feels no sense of remorse in doing what, by most standards, is abnormal behavior. Blake portrays a city of delicate and broken souls where there are those who walk the streets with no purpose or intent, lost in the madness of what the place is becoming. The wanderer, in his aimless endeavor, is acting out the antisocial tendencies which are manifested by a lack of clear purpose to most activities.

The wanderer is threatened by authority. He hears the cries of the people of the streets "in every voice, in every ban." (LC p52 .7). He feels the threat of a "ban", or a law that is imposed upon the citizens, as such a threat that it takes on the human quality of having a voice that can be actually heard. The narrator begins by saying "I wander thro' each charter'd street" (LC p52 .1) The word "charter'd", as used in this first line, indicates the creation through a form of legal order in the 18th century. It indicates that the streets of the city were designated by powers other than those who live in them, and the contempt in the wanderers words ring clear as one who resents this authority. In the reference to "every black'ning Church appalls" (LC p52 .10), the malice that the wanderer demonstrates towards the authority of the church is clear. He views the establishment, not simply the building, as an appalling, sooted entity, and this only serves to further illustrate his antisocial tendency to repel any institution that he deems a threat. Antisocial personalities will rebuff authority in every aspect of their lives,. They hold contempt for anything that resembles a threat to the freedom from rules they believe they deserve as someone who lives outside the realm of all the others. Blake's wanderer hates the authority that he perceives as being so pervasive in London, which is another manifestation of his sociopathic tendencies.

The point that Blake hits with insightful accuracy is in his depiction of the wanderer as a person without empathy for others. This man watches others in the night and comments that "In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear" (LC p52 .5-6) he hears nothing but the "mind-forg'd manacles" they possess. He is accusing those who are suffering in the streets, and even the babies who cry from fear, of simply suffering from self inflicted discontent. He feels no mercy for the men who cry. He feels no compassion for the babies. He simply, without equivocation, states that they have brought this on for