London
By William Blake, 1794
By William Blake, 1794
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 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.
Editors Comments
William Blake lived on Oxford Street in London, which led to Marble Arch.
William Blake lived on Oxford Street in London, which led to Marble Arch.
In the 18th Cent. Oxford Street was Tyburn Way, and Marble Arch was Tyburn. They hanged people every day from the massive gibbet erected there at Tyburn. So many spectators came to watch the deaths that eventually they had to take execution out of the public eye.
You can tell through this poem how much Blake detested the endless exploitation of men, women and children and the endless, needless deaths. Tumbrils passed his windows daily, laden with fresh unfortunates for the gallows. People were hung for stealing a loaf or a coat, and kids under ten for picking a pocket. Is it any wonder there were riots?
In Dicken’s time there were still public hangings and Dickens is appalled to discover how much the public seemed to enjoy, indeed relish these spectacles.
It is worth remembering that Blake’s ‘…dark, Satanic Mills…’ were not a product of his imagination. He is describing the woollen and cotton mills all over 18th and 19th Century England which so exploited their workers that they died like flies, from overwork, appalling accidents, disease and malnutrition.
Ira Maine, Poetry Editor
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