The Thames is a famous river that runs through 210 miles across the English countryside, through the heart of London, and into the North Sea. This river is very widely known and often mentioned in various English literary works throughout history. Of the texts we've read, one of the times it is most explicitly mentioned is in William Blake's pessimistic poem, aptly named "London." Blake writes:
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.
Here, the River Thames serves as a landmark in Blake's journey through his tour of what he believes to be an increasingly immoral city. Another poem in which the Thames is mentioned is in "Town in 1917," written by D.H. Lawrence.
London
Used to wear her lights splendidly,
Flinging her shawl-fringe over the River,
Tassels in abandon.
Describing London in the midst of WWI, Lawrence alludes to the mandatory blackouts common at the time as he describes how the river and the lights of the city interacted in a time before war. Below is an image of the River Thames in the 1910s.
