William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909.
LondonWilliam Blake (17571827)
I
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.
Every black’ning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.
How the youthful Harlot’s curse
Blasts the new born Infant’s tear,
And blights with plague the Marriage hearse.