During this year studying English Literature and Creative Writing, I’ve developed a new appreciation for poetry. With this in mind, I thought that I’d start a new weekly feature on So Many Books, So Little Time in which I share with you my favourite poems. They may be ones I discover on my course or ones I’ve loved for a long time.
Hopefully some of you will join me in sharing some awesome poems.
London – 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 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.
For A-level English Lit. I studied Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience and he quickly became one of my favourite poets and you’re very likely to see me featuring a lot more of his poems in the future.
Sophie
Other poetic ponders: Once Upon a Bookcase
I have to say, The Sick Rose is the only poem by Blake that I like. I studied them for GCSE - or maybe it was a-level, I can't rememeber. I found them all so depressing, lol. But The Sick Rose just worked for me. Thanks for linking to mine! :)
ReplyDeleteI love all of his Experience poems. I don't know what that says about me, but oh well! :)
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