Born in London in 1757, William Blake is a poet who we now view as one of the most
William Blake
talented of his era but who, during his lifetime, went largely unrecognised. Although we regard him as a London poet, he actually spent some of his later years in Felpham, Sussex where he was employed illustrating the work of a fellow poet, William Hayley.
This article is not intended to be a William Blake biography but it’s worth looking briefly at his idiosyncratic views and the world he lived in before reading the poem he wrote about London in 1792. Revolution was in the air in Europe and Blake was certainly a supporter. He was quite possibly involved in the burning of Newgate prison, although he claims he was swept up and transported there by an angry mob. Blake was certainly associated with two of the most revolutionary talking shops of the period, the London Corresponding Society and the Revolution Society.
So in 1792 he penned ‘London‘, a critique not just of the poverty and prostitution in the capital, but also of the encroaching capitalism that was beginning to take hold as London became a global marketplace. The ‘hapless soldier‘ also gets a mention in verse three as a pointed reference to the monarchy and the military’s role in supporting it, sometimes against their will.
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.
It’s a simple, creative and illuminating poem about a city which is on the verge of becoming the most powerful in the world while failing to deal with the revolutionary feelings and poverty of many its inhabitants.