One of the things that makes "London," along with numerous other poems from William Blake, so timeless is that its discussion of human suffering remains as relevant today as it ever was.
Blake enumerates social ills from the period (the late eighteenth century) to illustrate that suffering. Unfortunately, some of the concrete issues that he addresses, such as soldiers dying in war and women and children being infected with sexually transmitted diseases, still concern us today.
Let's go stanza by stanza to consider the ways in which Blake's poem relates to our contemporary world:
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.
"Charter'd" indicates a city, town, landmark or, in this case, a land form that has been established by government. It is awkward to consider the Thames, a river and, thus, an aspect of nature, as something that can be "charter'd." By making it so, Blake seems to critique our relationship with nature. Instead of being something that we enjoy, appreciate, and take part in, nature is something that we attempt to circumscribe, something from which we try to profit.
As a result of our distance from nature, we are discontent. In Blake's view, we have become weaker and more woeful. He does not select a particular class or group of people to characterize as such. All of humanity in London is represented here. This characterization parallels our contemporary modes of discontent: a sense of aimlessness caused by debt and underemployment, working toward no purpose other than to make money or, more simply, the inability to gain any pleasure out of life.
The second stanza is decidedly more dramatic in its depiction of human angst:
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear:
Blake attempts to give singularity to each "Man," "Infant," and "voice" with the use of the adverb "every." However, all are united by "the mind-forg'd manacles"—that is, the restrictions placed on each by social expectations. "Ban" has a double-meaning here. It is both "ban," in the contemporary sense of something that has been prohibited; and a variation of "bann," an eighteenth-century term which indicated a marriage vow. Marriage, in spite of remaining desirable to many, still comes with its restrictions and discontents.
The third and fourth stanzas more specifically address social ills from the eighteenth century, though they bear contemporary relevance:
How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.
But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
The first two lines of the third stanza address child labor. Chimney-sweepers were usually boys of only seven or eight years of age. They advertised their services in the streets. Blake indirectly critiques the Church for failing to address the suffering of these children. The "blackning" that occurs in the Church is both the sullying of its supposedly good intentions, as well as the possibility that churches, too, employ the services of chimney sweeps, thereby benefiting from a child's suffering.
Though child labor is no longer legal in Western countries, it still occurs in undeveloped countries. Moreover, child slavery (e.g., prostitution) is a global problem that has yet to be addressed by religious institutions.
"The hapless Soldier's sigh" could be construed as the soldier's last breath, or as his exasperation with war. The only change to this scenario is that, now, women, too, are sent to war. Blake blames the State ("Palace walls") for the Soldier's hopeless condition. Today, when we wish to critique what we consider to be unjust wars, we blame our leaders and their policies.
In the fourth stanza, Blake places emphasis on the pains of a woman who must sell her body to survive: "But most thro' midnight streets I hear..." The superlative "most" emphasizes her predominance. "The youthful harlot's curse" which "blasts the new-born Infant's tear" is likely venereal disease.
Sexually-transmitted diseases went under-treated in Blake's time. Gonorrhea, which can cause blindness in newborns if it goes untreated, is easily curable now. However, we now contend with the existences of HIV and AIDS. The latter causes death and heavily impacts women and children throughout the world: "And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse." Blake claims that the cohesion of families is threatened, not only by health crises, but also by the fact that some women must resort to prostitution to survive. The same is true today.
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