London [BLAKE poem set to music]
Channel: tobydarling
Date: 17/09/2013

This poem is by William Blake was published in his Songs of Experience in 1794. It is a masterpiece of condensed use of language in which each phrase conveys a vitriolic attack on the current political and social scene.

The images are from William Hogarth (1697-1794), who also had a thing to say about London society, but was somewhat earlier than Blake.

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 cry 
Every black'ning 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.