William Blake's Chimney Sweeper Poems

Chimney sweeper Essay

Writers and artists are influenced by the culture of their time. They respond to the world around them through their work. In the 18th century, England was plagued by the gruesome repercussions of the industrial revolution. One such repercussion was the child labor of the time, where young boys at the ages of five and six were for forced to work in harsh conditions, either sweeping chimneys or working in factories. William Blake used his romantic style of writing to commentate on these ever growing corruptions of the world. Blake’s Chimney Sweeper Poems use opposing ideas of innocence and experience to describe the world he sees by the use of literary devices.

Blake uses strong imagery to represent the feelings of his poems. A strong component used was the light versus dark imagery in both poems, with the contrasting soot-covered boy on the white snow in Songs of Experience. This blackness was used to describe the death and despair brought by the labor. These, “clothes of death,” were made by the soot but literally and metaphorically (SoE). Sweeping a chimney could mean death to a young boy who panicked when caching his leg or falling during a job. The color black was also used in Songs of Innocence, as the boy described “coffins of black” and how the boys were locked in them (SoI). These black coffins were used to depict the social status of the boys as well as the imminent deaths they face. In addition, Blake used the boy’s hair color to further play on the light verse dark. In Songs of Innocence, “little Tommy Dacre” was distressed when his head was shaved to prevent vermin and soot from getting in it (SoI). The narrator’s response was that it was done so the soot would not run the boy’s white hai...

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...ioned in the mind, as one would talk to any boy of a young age. The man reacts as if this is a normal sight, a boy covered in filth with a broom and thinks nothing of it. Blake uses this to show the wretchedness of the world. The man did not rush the boy out of the cold immediately and clothe him. He merely asks where his parents were. The narrators are used to show the perspectives of innocence of the child in Songs of Innocence and the status quo of sinfulness in Songs of Experience with these children made to sweep chimneys and endanger themselves. But at least the chimneys are clean.

Blake uses different techniques in his poems to comment on the foul world he sees around him. A world where young boys are sent to do a gruesome task. He approaches this commentary with his depictions of innocence and experience and captures them through his literary devices.