In "London," one of William Blake's "Songs of Experience," the depressing moral flaws of mankind are presented. The persona in the poem notes "marks of weakness" on every face. Given the qualities discussed in later stanzas, the weakness is likely moral, not physical, and therefore it leads to "marks of woe." The common note in the cries of men and babies, and in every voice and every proclamation is oppression--"mind-forg'd manacles." People are being victimized everywhere in the city. Even the Church, which should be a moral beacon, is darkened by the cruel poverty endured by the chimney sweeps because society is too selfish to provide a decent living for them. And the State, which could be a pillar of society, acts instead as a murderer of soldiers. Worst of all, the family unit is corrupted by immorality as a newborn baby is born blind because the father had contracted venereal disease and passed it on to his unknowing wife. Now their marriage is nothing more than a hearse to bear along their ruined relationship. This poem decries the moral darkness that plagues mankind and corrupts even the most central institutions of society.
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