London
William Blake, 1794
Blake’s poem from Songs of Experience describing a walk through the streets of London and the misery and oppression the speaker sees and hears there.
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.
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.
How the Chimney-sweeper’s cryEvery black’ning Church appalls;And the hapless Soldier’s sighRuns in blood down Palace walls.
But most, thro’ midnight streets I hearHow the youthful Harlot’s curseBlasts the new born Infant’s tear,And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.