Listening to the Past

London

BY WILLIAM 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 Infants cry of fear,

In every voice: in every ban,

The mind-forg'd manacles I hear 

How the Chimney-sweepers cry

Every blackning Church appalls, 

And the hapless Soldiers sigh

Runs in blood down Palace walls 

But most thro' midnight streets I hear

How the youthful Harlots curse

Blasts the new-born Infants tear 

And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse 

William Blake was an English poet and painter during the industrial revolution. During his lifetime, he was regarded as crazy, but he's now known as an important figure in the beginning of the Romantic movement. In his poem London, he describes the effects of the industrial revolution on the people of the city. The early years of the industrial revolution were very hard on the working class. In London, Blake describes the pain workers in London experienced.