William Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper
William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” was mainly about the possibilities of both hope and faith. Although the poem’s connotation is that of a very dark and depressed nature, the religious imagery Blake uses indicates that the sweeps will have a brighter future in eternity.
In lines 4 – 8 when Blake writes, “There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, That curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved: so I said ‘Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head’s bare You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.’ These lines symbolize faith in the biblical sense. Young Tom’s is like that of the sacrificial lamb of God and when the narrator tells Tom to stop crying because he knows that the soot can not longer spoil his white hair he, is saying to Tom, once he makes this sacrifice nothing else can hurt him. Blake is saying that if the children make the sacrifice of living out their lives here on Earth, no matter how dark and dismal their lives may seem at the time, they will be rewarded in heaven as long as they know the glory of God and trust in him.
It is in lines 10 – 24 that the poem becomes one of hope. For when Blake writes “As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight! That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack, Were all of them locked up in coffins of black. And by came an Angel who had a bright key, And he opened the coffins and set them all free;” Blake’s words ring true of hope for the sw...
Blake's poems of innocence and experience are a reflection of Heaven and Hell. The innocence in Blake's earlier poems represents the people who will get into Heaven. They do not feel the emotions of anger and jealousy Satan wants humans to feel to lure them to Hell. The poems of experience reflect those feelings. This is illustrated by comparing and contrasting A Divine Image to a portion of The Divine Image.
Mason, Michael. Notes to William Blake: A Critical Edition of the Major Works. Ed. Michael Mason. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Children are now welcomed to earth as presents bundled in pinks and blues. In the 1800’s children were treated as workers straight from the womb. Children trained early in age to perform unbearable tasks (Ward 3). Imagine how it felt to be unwanted by a parent and sold to a master who also cared nothing about them. Many children earned a few pennies by becoming chimney sweeps or working in the streets running errands, calling cabs, sweeping roads, selling toys or flowers and helping the market porters (Ward 3). The young children did not have much choice on which job (life) they wanted, but by far sweeping chimneys was the most dangerous. The children were forced into confined areas filled with comb webs, where they sacrificed their lives to clean. William Blake does a great job depicting hardship of children in the 1800’s in “The Chimney Sweeper” through the use of diction and imagery.
Three weeks before they were found Anne wrote in her diary: “Day and night during every waking hour, I do nothing but ask myself have you given him enough chance to be alone? Have you been spending too much time upstairs? Do you talk about serious subjects he’s not yet ready to talk about...?” (Frank 212) They were discovered after two years of hiding and were deported to concentration camps. Her father is the only one of the eight people to survive in the concentration camps. She is an inspiration to many people around the world to have gone through all that at such a young age. Through everything she went through she had kept a diary. Anne Frank had a crazy, but scary childhood, but a good family by her side every step of the way, she died at a young age, and kept a diary which was published into a book.
The Holocaust will forever remain one of the most horrific events in history and it is important to remember that there were many different endings for the many different Jews affected. It should not have mattered where the Jews lived, how old they were or the sex they were, none of them should have been persecuted in the first place. Reflecting on the tragic events of the war, all we can do is make sure that these horrific things never happen again.
The Holocaust was a time of sadness for many people. However, one story that took place during the Holocaust was truly inspiring and impacted the lives of many people around the world. This was the story of Anne Frank and her family. Anne Frank was one of over one million Jews who died in the Holocaust (Anne Frank 1). In September 1939, when World War II began, more than one and a half million Jews lived in countries occupied, or soon to be occupied by Hitler (Lee 1). Because of this many families were forced into concentration camps due to Hitler during this time. However, Anne’s family decided to try and avoid the brutal camps by going into hiding in the secret annex. Anne Frank and her family are famously known for Anne’s diary that was found by Miep Gies in the secret annex (Anne Frank 1). Not long after the diary was found, Anne’s story was known all around the world. Anne Frank impacted the lives of many by showing people an insight of what life was really like for Jews under Hitler’s control and being someone who people can look up to. Therefore, Anne Frank impacted the lives of many people around the world and has become a “famous symbol for the lost promise of the children who died in the Holocaust” (Anne Frank 1).
In the second stanza we are introduced to another chimney sweeper named Tom Dacre "who cried when his head that curled like a lamb's back was shaved." He is not only crying for the loss of ...
...o hiding in a secret room in an old spice factory. The publication of her diary after the war allowed for an eye oppening experience of what life was like in hiding from the Nazis. Anne tells her story over the period of a few years in which she goes through teenage drama and aingst all while fearing for life during WWII. After her last entry, the Franks are discovered and sent to consentration camps where they are all killed except Otto Frank, Anne's father. Anne's diary has been translated into many languages and to this day is the second highest selling non-fiction book, only surpassed by the bible.
The Holocaust is a traumatic history. About six millions of Jews got killed during this period of time. Holocaust is a history of anti-Semitism in Europe, anti-Semitism gained their strength after World War One, Germany had lost the war, so the German people blame the Jews for losing the war, and the Jews became the scapegoat. So Anne Frank is one of those Jews who got discriminate during the Holocaust. She went to hiding with her family, and the diary she wrote during her hiding time remained after she got killed in the camp. Her diary was published after then, and in her diary she had state it “Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.” I totally agree with her in this statement.
Almost everyone has heard the legacy about this young, teenage World War II icon. Her story, her family, her personal life, and almost everything in her life; the reason for this was her diary. Her diary was published by her father, Otto Frank. Although some parts edited out, this diary had become well known as a hopeful yet horrifying time for the Jews. The way Anne Frank wrote about her life made all the horrors of the Holocaust real. She was about 13-years-old when she went into hiding with 7 other people in the place they hid called the Secret Annex. Later, they were found and had an inescapable fate with the concentration camp. The concentration camps were full of revolting conditions; over-packed bunks, starvation, disease, overworking of prisoners, torture, and the scent of death always in the air. There were approximately 6 million Jews killed in this terrifying massacre from all around the world. In these next few statements, I’ll tell you more about the Holocaust, Concentration camps, Anne Frank’s Story, and her legacy she left behind.
Who thinks it’s respectful to the people of the Holocaust if we’re making fun of them? Think of Anne Frank for example, we’re selling her as a costume to make money off of her. The costume itself ruined the memory of a victim of the holocaust. Though sometimes people do not see the point of halloween costumes, people still misuse and mistreat these costumes.
In one of the illustrations, the Little Black Boy is still black when he meets God even though in the poem he claims that color will no longer matter. The way that they are standing is very interesting too because the poem suggests that they will be equal, but the Little Black Boy is described as standing behind the child and in the picture, he is standing behind the white boy. This could be another example of Blake showing how innocent people and naïve people are close to the same thing. The boy thinks one way, but Blake is showing the reader the way things really are through his
This poem was in his collection entitled, Songs of Innocence. ""today his most popular volume, he revealed glimpses of life as it appears to innocent childhood, full of charm and joy, and trust"(William Blake Dark 77 or 79 blu)." This is what Blake adapted as his style; his poems were simple, direct, and clear enough for a child to understand. One of Blake's other more popular poems is, "The Lamb." This poem like many others is written in his idiosyncratic view of Christianity, th...
Blake also uses sound to deliver the meaning to the poem. The poem starts off with "My mother groaned! my father wept." You can hear the sounds that the parents make when their child has entered this world. Instead of joyful sounds like cheer or cries of joy, Blake chooses words that give a meaning that it is not such a good thing that this baby was brought into this world. The mother may groan because of the pain of delivery, but she also groans because she knows about horrible things in this world that the child will have to go through. The father also weeps for the same reason, he knows that the child is no longer in the safety of the womb, but now is in the world to face many trials and tribulations.
wondering if today he will die up a chimney. It has robbed him of a