"London": asking to be heard

I think that one of the things that struck me the most about William Blake's "London" is how desperately it is asking to be heard. The content of the poem describing the decrepit state of London is a powerful message, and one that Blake certainly wanted to resonate, which I feel is especially apparent in his use of sounds and repetition in the poem. His rhyme scheme and repetition, as well as his use of alliteration create a sing-songy, melodic kind of rhythm, one that could possibly be put to song or at the very least easily repeated. This is probably the most prominent in the second stanza as he begins the first three lines of the stanza with "In every" and repeatedly uses "every" throughout it, making the stanza almost chant-like. These devices allow the poem to be easily memorized and as an extension of this further its poignant message.

In addition to this, Blake also inserts another device in the poem that I found especially interesting: his use in three places of the word "hear". It appears in the last line of the second stanza, the first line of the fourth stanza and vertically in the first letters of each line in the third stanza (which I never would have noticed without the help of the handy-dandy footnotes). While I'm not exactly sure why Blake would have done this and am not aware of any other instance where this kind of device is used, the recurrence of the word reminded me somewhat of an echo. I felt as if the "hear's" in the second and fourth stanzas were sandwiching the "hear" in the third stanza, and because of the vertical placement of it, it seemed to me as if it was almost bouncing or reverberating between the two others. To me, this emphasized even more Blake's desire for his message to be heard and spread--echoed--throughout his city and adds visual memorability to the already memorable and sing-songy rhytm of the poem. It is possible that it could also have appealed visually to people reading the poem, as this is something that can really only be seen and not heard--a contrast, it would seem, to Blake's expectations for the poem itself.