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Mind-forg'd Manacles

Mind-forg'd manacles are created by people. They are common. Blake's sensitivity to people being hurt is great. That people hurt each other, and their own children, is awful :(

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=172929

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 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.

Elliot Temple on January 2, 2009

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