When reading, “London,” by William Blake, the first image that came to my mind was that of a crowded New York City subway. William opens this poem by talking about the, “Marks of weakness” and “Marks of woe,” that he observes in people as he passes by them on a street. In the short stroll Blake took down the street, he was able to identify how each person he encountered was feeling. He paints a depressing picture because he described everybody to be discontent. This triggered the image of a crowded subway system to appear in my head. I take the subway on a daily basis and my experience is similar to the one that Blake has on the street. In a subway cart that can only hold so many people, it is easy to look around and see how miserable most people on the train are feeling.

As Blake proceeds, he never offers a resolution in his poem or an alternative for the negativity he experiences. Instead, he continues to talk about the depressing things he’s seeing. For example, “But most thro’ midnight streets I hear how the youthful Harlot’s curse. Blasts the new born infants tear, and blights with plague the marriage hearse.” This made it even easier to picture the image of a subway system. As the day progresses, nothing about the subway system becomes more enjoyable. What you experience during the daytime only becomes worse and more serious and William Blake experiences the same on his walk through the London Street.

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