London
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 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.
-from Songs of Experience
"The Tiger" contains no "I" and no statements; "London" centers on an "I" and is nothing but statements in a strikingly original idiom that foreshadows surrealist combinations of sensory images.