A comparison of the Use of Language between the Chimney Sweeper from Songs of Innocence and Experience
Even though, a hundred and seventy nine years later, lying in his
grave, William Blake is still one of the best influences in poetry and
even daily life today. Blake’s work, unrecognised during his lifetime,
but now is almost universally considered that of a genius. Northrop
Frye, who undertook a study of Blake’s entire opus, ‘What is in
proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English
Language.’ Blake was born into a middle class family in 1757. The
bible, being one of the most worshipped yet most feared artefacts in
Blake’s time, was his biggest influence in his work, and was to be his
biggest influence until the day he died. As Blake matured into a
budding poet, artist and engraver, his parents were with him every
step of the way. In 1782, Blake married Catherine Boucher, a girl he
respected, loved, needed and most importantly, shared a passion in his
work. Blake abhorred slavery with a passion, he also believed strongly
in racial and sexual equality, but in Blake’s era, both racial and
sexual equality was as good as impossible. ‘ As all men are alike tho’
infinitely various.’ [William Blake.] Blake believed that innocence
and experience were the two contrary states of the human soul, and
that true innocence was impossible without experience. The disastrous
end to the French revolution caused Blake to lose faith in the
goodness of mankind. As religious as Blake was, he believed there was
some kind of bad side to religion; he believed that children lost
their innocence through exploitation from a religious communit...
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...ame, to
give us a message that these children are in suffering. But they are
completely different in the fact that ‘The Chimney Sweeper from Songs
of Innocence’ is conveying God in a good light, it shows religion is a
good thing, and it shows innocence in all these children, and this
innocent childish like feeling is there when you read it, whereas,
‘The Chimney Sweeper from Songs of Experience’ conveys God and
Religion, even the King and Parents, in an evil way, it makes us feel
ashamed that someone as human as us can do that to a child, and it
gives you a sense of experience, like a lamb, as innocent as that is,
compared to a gun, how experienced is that? Also the illustration with
the poem gives off this sense of evil, with all the black, and the
expression of the chimney sweeper is sad, tied down, locked up inside.