London

Rufus Wainwright

Compositor: Rufus Wainwright / William Blake

I wander through each chartered streets,
Near where the chartered 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-forged manacles I hear

How the chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackening church appals,
And the hapless soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down palace-walls
But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse