The dictionary definition of oppression is a prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or exercise of authority we see this theme in both an extract from the prelude and London. And in this essay I'm going to explore that.
In line 10 of London will see a very clear reference to oppression as William Blake is walking the streets he describes what he sees and says " every black'ning church appalls" this lying makes me think of oppression because of the word blackening it suggests or sound like it's dark outside which can always be haunting however we know the word blackening wasn't used to describe what time of day it was but in fact a very obvious reference to the French Revolution because the clergy wore black we can back up this knowledge of knowing it was a reference to the French revolution by the fact we know that for a whole year William Blake wore a red hat which was a sign of support for the French Revolution.
We can link our poem London to the prelude when talking about darkness Or metaphors for Darkness because in the prelude there are lots of references to the fact it could be night time. We know this because it says " idly in the moon... The grey Sky... Me and the stars" william Wordsworth talking about nature and being on his boat and the mountains getting in the way as we know is all a metaphor for what we think is something getting in the way of him and a girl having a relationship we can link the fact he describes the sky as dark to the fact he's feeling impressed and sad because he cannot be with the girl he wants to be with. It is interesting to see themes of Darkness representing oppression in both poems.
In London William Blake talks about " the mind-forged manacles I hear" this is an obvious theme of oppression and there are lots of different ways we can look at it it could be he is held down by others opinions, it could be the other people are oppressed by your own ideas, of reference to beating the manacles you here in your own head...
