E P Thompson on William’s Blake’s London
E P Thompson was a great enthusiast for William Blake and wrote about his work(Witness Against the Beast 1993) understanding Blake as one of the great early nineteenth century radicals.
On June 25th June 1970 Thompson was featured in a BBC1 programme on Blake’s poem London. Blake wrote the poem in 1793 as part of the Songs of Experience.
It reflects Blake’s radicalism, his support for the French Revolution, and hence his disdain for City of London and the development of capitalism that it was then playing a role in. Blake lived in the City during this period and the poem reflects his personal experiences of his surroundings, together with of course his politics:
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
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