AP essay for the chimney sweeper
In the poems “The chimney sweeper” there are two versions of the poems, for example one was written in the year 1789 and the other was published in the year 1794. These poems have a similar meaning in the words, but both have different connotations.
In the “chimney sweeper” that was written on the year 1794 it talks about how the innocent kid was brought into a dangerous world. How the child was taken from a safe place being the mothers belly to the drak outside world. Since the parents were poor there was work to be done in the chimney, furthermore this was the time of the industrial revolution, so it was really hard for people to stay alive.This poem talks about how the kids parents did not want him and how
poem and the conflict and division, he faces between himself and his family. He describes
The first stanza begins with a familiar setting, a “… winter evening”(1). This is associated with a lack of growth and a loss of vitality. It also describes death and desolation. This does not last long when we are confronted,” with smells of steaks in passageways”(2) paints a picture of a polluted and mundane environment. The precise use of descriptive words composes this mood of decline and despair. As seen when you read ” …the burnt-out ends of smoky days”(4).
on morality to show the moral of the poem. The poem starts off isolating the Grinch from the
In this poem, there is a young woman and her loving mother discussing their heritage through their matrilineal side. The poem itself begins with what she will inherit from each family member starting with her mother. After discussing what she will inherit from each of her family members, the final lines of the poem reflect back to her mother in which she gave her advice on constantly moving and never having a home to call hers. For example, the woman describes how her father will give her “his brown eyes” (Line 7) and how her mother advised her to eat raw deer (Line 40). Perhaps the reader is suggesting that she is the only survivor of a tragedy and it is her heritage that keeps her going to keep safe. In the first two lines of the poem, she explains how the young woman will be taking the lines of her mother’s (Lines 1-2). This demonstrates further that she is physically worried about her features and emotionally worried about taking on the lineage of her heritage. Later, she remembered the years of when her mother baked the most wonderful food and did not want to forget the “smell of baking bread [that warmed] fined hairs in my nostrils” (Lines 3-4). Perhaps the young woman implies that she is restrained through her heritage to effectively move forward and become who she would like to be. When reading this poem, Native American heritage is an apparent theme through the lifestyle examples, the fact lineage is passed through woman, and problems Native Americans had faced while trying to be conquested by Americans. Overall, this poem portrays a confined, young woman trying to overcome her current obstacles in life by accepting her heritage and pursuing through her
The poem takes the reader back in time for a moment to a small kitchen and a young boy at bedtime. The dishes have been cleared and placed on the counter or in the sink. The family is seated around the table. The father having a glass of whiskey to relax after a very hard day working in the family owned twenty-five-acre greenhouse complex. He is asked to take his small son to bed. The poem begins, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” (Roethke line 1) enlists the imagery of what the young boy was smelling as he most likely climbed aboard his fathers’ large work boots for the evening waltz to bed. It is obvious this is an evening ritual, one that is cherished. The boy is aware of his fathers’ waltzing abilities and he concedes that he is up for the challenge. The irony of the statement, “I hung on like death” (Roethke line 3) is a private one, yet deeply describes his yearning for one more waltz with his father who passed away when Theodore was only fifteen years ...
However, in this situation, the writer is in the point of view of their neighbor who does not attempt anything to stop this madness. This character can be compared to a statue as he does not help the boy and only watches, thinking about his childhood memories. Although there are only 3 characters, this poem expresses several emotions to the reader who may either feel pity for the boy, the whipper, or even the neighbor due to his past experiences.
In William Blake’s poems “The Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Innocence and “The Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Experience, the reader is able to understand the viewpoints of children treated unfairly. The Songs of Innocence version of the poem, written in 1789, describes how a boy helps a fellow chimney sweeper find comfort despite their struggles. This boy then dreams about an angel that sets sweepers like him free and how they find happiness in their freedom. In his dream, the boy learns that if he will “be a good boy,” he will find salvation in God. The Songs of Experience version, written five years later, is about a boy that seems happy so his parents think they have not done any wrong to him. The boy’s parents are “gone up to the church to pray” while he is clothed in “the clothes of death” and taught to sing sorrowfully. Both poems allude to the religious aspect of the Romantic Period, leading to their theme of redemption. The theme of redemption is shown in the exploitation of children depicted in the poems, the use of symbolism throughout each, and the inevitable loss of innocence.
Though this poem mainly describes the suffering of these children, William Blake wrote another poem also titled “The Chimney Sweeper” where he described how as these chimney-sweepers grew older, they began to realize how they were taken advantage of and how the promises of the Church were all just a big hoax. From these two poems, it can be inferred that Blake intentionally pointed out and revealed the malfeasance of the Church and society and how they exploited younger children due to their gullibility and innocence solely for the economy without having any regard for the children’s lives.
In The Chimney Sweeper from Songs of Innocence, the tone of the poem is innocent and shifts from sad to hopeful. Blake uses such diction as “And my father sold me while yet my tongue could scarcely cry ‘weep! weep! weep! weep!’”(lines 2-3) and “in soot I sleep”(line 4) to give the beginning of the poem a depressing tone which evokes sympathy from the readers about the speaker’s deplorable situation. As the poem continues the tone shifts to hopeful as the speaker tries to reassure his friend Tom that everything will be alright, “’Hush, Tom! Never mind it,’” (line 7). In Tom’s dream he imagines freedom and happiness going “down a green plain leaping, laughing” (line 15) as they “sport in the wind” (line 18). The dream takes place in a pastoral idyll opposite of the monochrome darkness of the real world in which the boys are subject to a capitalist economy where they can only weep over their degradation (Norton). Tom’s dream is reflective of the innocent tone of this poem in that he is still able to be hopeful in such a horrid and desolate situation. The lines most convincing of the shift in tone to hopeful are the last lines, lines 23 and 24: “Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm; so if all do their duty they need not fear harm.” This is a dramatic turn of events from Tom crying about having to get his head shaved to being happy to start a days’ work in soot
William Blake's The Chimney Sweeper, written in 1789, tells the story of what happened to many young boys during this time period. Often, boys as young as four and five were sold for the soul purpose of cleaning chimneys because of their small size. These children were exploited and lived a meager existence that was socially acceptable at the time. Blake voices the evils of this acceptance through point of view, symbolism, and his startling irony.
Can changing the mindset the story is told from change the outlook of a story? Can two stories with the same topic, written by the same author make you feel two very different ways? William Blake illustrated this to a perfection with the poems “The Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Innocence and “The Chimney Sweeper” from the Songs of Experience. The two poems have the same concept but are told from two different perspective. One from an innocent view of the world and one from someone with the experience of the world. Songs of Innocence contrast with Songs of Experience from the speaker of poem to the tone it is told to the imagery each poem possess.
he little chimney boy=s comforting is successful for Tom stops crying and is able to sleep and dream peacefully. If it is not for the little chimney boy=s comforting attitude Tom might have not survived as a chimney sweeper and the poem would have lack
The children that were assigned to clean the chimneys were sometimes as young as four years old and the majority of them were orphans. The job was also dangerous. Children could get stuck and suffocate or get burned and bruised on a regular basis. This was obviously something that poet William Blake felt strongly about.
Blake uses The Chimney Sweeper to advocate against the issue of children working to death as chimney sweepers. By contrasting the boy’s innocence and the severity of working as a chimney sweeper he displays the horrors of the situation. Later, Tom Dacre has a dream that contains two very different interpretations, one relating to their current life, the other, to the afterlife. Irony is also prevalent in the story to characterize the boys as innocent. All of these aspects of the poem come together to evoke pity for the children in the reader.
William Blake’s “Chimney Sweeper” in both his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, portrays his critique on society. He achieves this goal by having not one, but two poems on the same topic of chimney sweeping, and this helps to reinforce his message. He criticizes society for permitting the atrocious child labor to ensue and also the Church, who condones the ill treatment of the young children. The parents are linked as well, being a product of the corrupt society, and for associating with the Church. Irony, is also a tool Blake utilizes to strengthen his objective. The evaluation of both poems together, is the key to understanding Blake’s intent; you can’t have one without the other. Perhaps, now the “unpleasantness” of Blake’s “great poetry” is understood.