At the other end of the rainbow bridge there is a pot of gold. Pick it up and walk into the realms of gold. ~ RYD

Upon Westminster Bridge

 

Earth has not anything to show more fair:

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty:

This City now doth like a garment wear

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:

Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;

And all that mighty heart is lying still!

 

 

William Wordsworth

1770–1850

 

London

 

I wander through each chartered street,
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.

 

 

William Blake

1757-1827

 

London Bridge is Falling Down

 

London Bridge is falling down,

Falling down, falling down,

London Bridge is falling down,

My fair Lady.

 

Build it up with wood and clay,

Wood and clay, wood and clay,

Build it up with wood and clay,

My fair Lady.

 

Wood and clay will wash away,

Wash away, wash away,

Wood and clay will wash away,

My fair Lady.

 

Build it up with bricks and mortar,

Bricks and mortar, bricks and mortar,

Build it up with bricks and mortar,

My fair Lady.

 

Bricks and mortar will not stay,

Will not stay, will not stay,

Bricks and mortar will not stay,

My fair Lady.

 

Build it up with iron and steel,

Iron and steel, iron and steel,

Build it up with iron and steel,

My fair Lady.

 

Iron and steel will bend and bow,

Bend and bow, bend and bow,

Iron and steel will bend and bow,

My fair Lady.

 

Build it up with silver and gold,

Silver and gold, silver and gold,

Build it up with silver and gold,

My fair Lady.

 

Silver and gold will be stolen away,

Stolen away, stolen away,

Silver and gold will be stolen away,

My fair Lady.

 

Set a man to watch all nigh,

Watch all night, watch all night,

Set a man to watch all night,

My fair Lady.

 

Suppose the man should fall asleep,

Fall asleep, fall asleep,

Suppose the man should fall asleep?

My fair Lady.

 

Give him a pipe to smoke all night,

Smoke all night, smoke all night,

Give him a pipe to smoke all night,

My fair Lady.

 

 

A Nursery Rhyme

 

A Nightmare

 

I dreamed a dream, perhaps a prophecy!

That Lond over England spread herself;

Swallowed the Green field and waving plain,

Till all this island grew one hideous town.

And as I gazed in terror rooted, so

The City seemed to take a dreadful life,

to be a monster that desired and felt;

And still did she perceptibly advance,

Blacken and grasp and seize and wither up.

Northward she spread,  and did assimilate

Her sister cities of the loom and wheel

That welcomed her with whirring ecstasies;

She made the sky a pall, and as she moved,

Blighted the breathing forests and the woods,

And where the flowers grew, now her pavemt lay.

And all the air grew dark, snd there was heard,

In place of rippling wave and whispering wind,

Only the hoot of grinding car, the shriek

And fiery belch of engines to the cloud.

 

 

Stephen Phillips

1868-1915

 

Bartholomew Fair

 

While gentlefolk strut in their silver and satins,

We others go tramping in bonnets and pattens

And merrily old English ballads will sing-o

As they will in operays outlandish lingo

Sing bravo, sing caro, encoro, whate'ero,

But nothing I sing save Bartholomew Fair-o.

 

Crowd upon crowd upon other crowds driving,

Shout over shout and each contrary striving,

With fiddling, and fluting, and roaring, and shrieking,

Drum, fife and trumpet, and barrowgirls squeaking;

My rare round and found take your choice of fine wear-o,

Tho'sold means not sound at Bartholomew Fair-o.

 

See the Lady in Leaves, and the Spaniard in Lights,

The Grandees of France, and the Pig that Recites,

A Cave with a Mermaid, a Cloud with a Dragon,

And the Duke who can drink his own weight from a flagon;

My rare round and found take your choice of fine wear-o,

Tho'sold means not sound at Bartholomew Fair-o.

 

Here are dolls, here are dances, the showing of postures,

Plum-porridge, black-puddings, and Colchester oysters,

Here is Punch's own play, and the Gunpowder Squire,

Fine sausages fried, and the Black on the wire;

My rare round and found take your choice of fine wear-o,

Tho' sold means not sound at Bartholomew Fair-o.

 

 

[c. 175o]

 

Bloomsbury

 

For me, for me, these old retreats

Amid the world of London streets!

My eye is pleased with all it meets

In Bloomsbury

 

I know how green is Peckham Rye,

And Syd'nham, flashing in the sky,

But did I dwell there I should sigh

For Bloomsbury.

 

I know where Maida Vale receives

The night dews on her summer leaves,

Not less my settled spirit cleaves

To Bloomsbury.

 

Some love the Chelsea river gales,

And the slow barges' ruddy sales,

And these I'll woe when glamour fails

                                     In Bloomsbury.

 

 

Soho

 

Visitors to London come year after year.

The colour of their skins and their accents may see m queer.

But the spot they all want to see and know,

You've guessed it first time, it's dear old Soho.

 

Four circuses were built long, long ago—

Piccadilly, Oxford, Cambridge, St Giles—and so

The powers that be in their wisdom so clever

Said: We'll give it a name that lasts for ever and ever.

 

In those far off days around here they used to hunt,

Horses and hounds were all to the front.

But the cry of the l{unt sounded like 'Ho Ho',

So that's how this place came to be called 'So Ho'.

 

The first to arrive from the continent were the French

With their habits and costumes and thirsts to quench.

They built their bistros and patisseries and did so well

That the Germans heard about it and came quick as hell.

 

Italians, Poles, Czechs, Hungarians were the next to arrive.

In a land as good as this they were all bound to survive.

Survive they all did and brought their relations as well,

But this is another story and would take years to tell.

 

Myself I've lived around here for forty years and more'

Of characters I've met some living, some dead, some rich and some poor.

French Letter Syd, Overcoat Charlie, IronfootJack and others.

I've even met some villains who had sisters and brothers'

 

The Chinese then arrived with their manners so good.

Parts of Gerrard Street suited them, as I knew it would.

Fortunes were made there selling succulent dishes to eat,

And as a result they've taken over the whole bloody street.

 

 

Francis Blake