Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Pollution, Disease, Government

    Based on a poem by Alfred Tennyson, considers the heating of the Thames on its way to the sea and wishes that its stink would poison 'A Bishop, Peer, or M.P.' Expresses good wishes to those boys who play and swim in the river and considers the 'touch of a despot's hand / To the works of a Board [Metropolitan Board of Works] that is nil'. Ends by asserting that he will never be struck dead by the 'appetite' of the river's stink.