Both William Blake’s ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ come from his book ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience. He first wrote ‘ Songs of Innocence’, published in 1789 followed by ‘ Songs of Experience’ in 1794. Though those two books were put together as one, there is a huge difference between the two: Songs of Innocence is written in a joyful way, whereas Songs of Experience is a darker and less joyful book.
The first Chimney Sweeper poem was to be found in the Songs of Innocence. The poem talks about little children having to work as chimney sweepers. The striking thing about this poem is that this it is based on Christianity. Whatever mentioned that is bad is later on justified by Christianity. The first stanza gives the reader information about the past of the child that is central in this poem. When he was really young (‘while yet my tongue could scarcely cry ‘’Weep! Weep! Weep! Weep!’’ ’1) his further life was decided for him, he was going to be a chimney sweeper.
In the second stanza the reader is being introduced with Tom, another child central in this poem. Tom cries when his head gets shaved but in fact he is absolutely oblivious of what is going on. A few words used in this stanza are striking, words such as lamb, soot and white hair. There is a clear distinction made here between black and white. ‘When your head’s bare, you know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair’2, to put that sentence in other words, it says that the innocence of the child cannot be spoilt by the soot because it will remain clean for it is not there.
The third stanza talks about dreams that Tom has about him and thousands of other children dying and being locked up in black coffins3. The use of black coffins shows that Blake used symbolism. Blac...
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...hts so that they will be rewarded with heaven at the end. In the second poem the child central does not think about that, he talks about what the first poem tries to deny (or cover up).
In conclusion, these two poems are written from different perspectives.
The first poem is written from a joyful and neutral (positive even) point of view. The second poem is written from a less positive (even negative) point of view filled with blame and disappointment.
Though the point of views are different, there is one important similar factor that comes back in both poems, and that is the difference between black and white. Though these two poems are written from two totally different perspectives, it is fair to say that (even if the first poem covers it up by being written from a positive approach) both poems are quite sinister when fully understanding what they are about.
The idea of the innocence having been created or forced to exist is lost as the poem focuses on the children and how innocent they are. This stands out particularly in the second stanza which uses end rhyme and repetition to underline just how many children seemed to be going into the church. It is also in that same stanza that the children are referred to as lambs, which is a common symbol for innocence. It is not simply the multitudes of children, but the multitudes of the innocent that have been gathered. ...
Stanza two shows us how the baby is well looked after, yet is lacking the affection that small children need. The child experiences a ‘vague passing spasm of loss.’ The mother blocks out her child’s cries. There is a lack of contact and warmth between the pair.
William Blake focused on biblical images in the majority of his poetry and prose. Much of his well-known work comes from the two compilations Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. The poems in these compilations reflect Blake's metamorphosis in thought as he grew from innocent to experienced. An example of this metamorphosis is the two poems The Divine Image and A Divine Image. The former preceded the latter by one year.
A name is given in the second stanza “Tom Dacre” used to show the realism of the event described in the poem. The second stanza contains the only simile in this poem, “That curl’d like a lamb’s back”(6), symbolizing the lamb as innocence and when they shave the child’s head it’s like they are taking the innocence away from the child.
... overall themes, and the use of flashbacks. Both of the boys in these two poems reminisce on a past experience that they remember with their fathers. With both poems possessing strong sentimental tones, readers are shown how much of an impact a father can have on a child’s life. Clearly the two main characters experience very different past relationships with their fathers, but in the end they both come to realize the importance of having a father figure in their lives and how their experiences have impacted their futures.
The last fragment of the poem: "Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm; so if all do their duty, they need not fear harm." Their duties, as I have stated before, were to clean chimneys of soot. In the process of cleaning these chimneys a lot of climbing boys never got to the stage of adolescence as some died of suffocation, of cancer, etc, all caused by their work. Why was Tom "happy and warm"? Why did they "need not fear harm"? Tom knew his dream foreshadowed happiness in the next life so he was happy, he was warm, and he "need not fear harm."
The way the points of views in each different poem creates a different theme for each poems using different points diction to convey meaning for each of the two poems. In the poem “Birthday” a humorous tone shows a newborn baby in a first person point of view. As opposed to the poem “The Secret Life of Books” which uses a third person point of view for a more serious tone. The two poems would change dramatically whiteout the different points of views because without the humor of the newborn baby being the narrator the poem might take a different spin on the meaning to create a more serious tone. As opposed to “The Secret Life of Books” where the poem is a big personification which if it was not in a third person point of view it might have a a humorous tome in the background. The two poems have many things that help contrast them with each other another one of these being the theme chosen to give each poem a separate identity, while “Birthday” has some background information in some of the diction it uses to World War II “The Secret Life of Books” has no need for the knowledge of background information just the curiosity of the brain
Williams use of colors in “The Chimney Sweeper” is not just added into the story for our imagination, all the meanings of the colors the reader is shown from the child’s eyes are revealed and exposed from the experience or adult side of the story. Moreover, in this story the color white is used to show purity in a person or their thoughts. Tom Dacre is depicted with having white hair, meaning he is pure as he is nearly just a child, but William brilliantly shows the loss of innocence in this seen as Toms hair is shaved off, symbolizing his purity being stripped from life. Although colors are very symbolic in this poem, the few key words the reader notices are very important as well. William writes that when Tom was getting his hair cut that he “cried when his head, That curl’d like a lamb’s back, was shav’d”, rest assured that the word lamb was no mistake when it was written (Lines 5-6). Mrs. Dianne Heath writes about Blake’s choice of words here saying “Moreover, yet again humans are shown Williams genius ways as the lamb in this passage symbolizes the Christian theme of Christs purity and sacrifice to humanity and temporal neglect of his father” (Heath 116). Although Blake is not comparing these children to Jesus Christ, he is making parallels in their lives, showing the reader that these children are sacrificed for their society just as Christ was sacrificed for all of mankind. Nonetheless, while God painfully had to turn away from his son for a moment to let him be the ultimate sacrifice for everyone’s sins, these children’s parents willfully turn away from their children, and sacrifice them and their innocence to work without reward or love. Clearly people today can see the flame of passion William had for rebelling against the status-quo, for his people sacrificed and tortured
Everyone was certain in thinking if they work as what they are and work hard at it, they will go to heaven. People on the poor side thought going to heaven would be freedom. Blake doesn't just get his message through to the Church but also the wealthy, he wanted the affluent people to know the damages they have caused in the direction of the poor. Blake died in 1828, at a grand age of 71, in is time he had made a huge range of poems from Short to Long. William Blake just wanted everyone to know what he clearly saw in life.
Blake also uses symbolism to express the evils of exploiting these small boys. Most of this symbolism appears to be about death. This gives the poem a dark mood. For example, Blake writes “So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep'; (554). Most of the boys who were sold into chimney sweeping died very young because the soot inhalation destroyed their lungs. In ...
These poems are different in their forms. Roethke, in his poem “My Papa’s Waltz” uses a closed form with a distinct pattern and a rhyme scheme. This poem follows an ABAB rhyme scheme. On the other hand, Hayden’s poem “Those Winter Sundays” is written in open form. It does not follow any rhyme scheme. The poets use different tones for the poems. In case of “My Papa’s Waltz”, the poet uses a tone full of excitement and joy as he describes the way he danced with his father, while in “Those Winter Sundays”, the poet uses a tone of melancholy when he describes the way his father did little things which no one noticed. The imagery used in the first poem is also different from that used in the second one. “My Papa’s Waltz”, uses imagery like “romping”, “waltzing” which reveals his excitement. On the other hand, in Hayden’s poem, there is no such warmth in the human
As a starting point, it is worth noting that Blake was critical of the church, however this did not mean he was not Christian. He believed in the Bible, Heaven, and Hell. As a result of his Christian beliefs there is a strong religious theme that influences and informs his works both poems and etchings. Blake was also a radical and was critical of the state and it’s social structures, which is also reflected in his works. Blake presents in Songs of Innocence and Experience that the human soul has a dual nature, essentially made up of both the good and evil phases and stages. Songs of Innocence, do not only represent the innocence of the human soul at its early stage of life (childhood), but also describe the spiritual connection of the soul to its creator whereas; songs of Experience represent the inherent evil side of the soul (Fonge, 2009). I will now go into a detailed discussion of each poem and illustrate how Blake succeeds in establishing the contrary states of the human soul.
The first poem “The Chimney Sweeper,” has an innocent child as a speaker, thus Blake’s main purpose in writing through the view point of a pure child who is soon to be corrupted and oppressed by society, is to create disturbance inside the readers mind, so they can share his fury. He goes through various measures to create an elevated depiction of the boys purity and innocence; an exact rhyme scheme (a childlike action), being “naked and white” in his dream (signs of purity), and being “Happy &warm” even when he has to sweep. The boy says “my father sold me while yet my tongue could scarcely cry ‘’weep!’Weep!’weep!,” thus since he is so young that he can not successfully advertise his job, it is implied that he was sold into apprenticeship way before he understood the injustice of his situation. Blake uses the Technique of naming the speaker, Little Tom Dacre, to make him into an actual individual that the re...
Now Blake introduces a new character into the poem, which is Tom Dacre (ln 5). In the second stanza, Blake is stating the mortality, or unhappiness of Tom. The author’s tone changes for a moment in stanza two when he says “Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head’s bare, the soot cannot spoil your white hair”, (ln 7-8). The author has two meanings in these lines. The obvious is that he can’t have hair for the fact that his hair would be full of soot. The tone change comes in where the meaning is not so obvious. The tone up to line six is mournful. Lines seven and eight also have a mournful tone in the obvious state. They connote that Tom needs to keep his head up and not let his job get to him, or simply to keep hope alive.
William Blake was a British poet and visual artist who lived from 1757-1827. He was seen as a mad man by many people of his time, and so his literary work was largely unappreciated. However, an “elect few” understood and enjoyed his work, and today he is widely known as “a seminal figure in the history of poetry of the Romantic Age.” Blake wrote the “Chimney Sweeper” poems to demonstrate his society’s wrongs and ills in what seemed like children’s literature. He often provided illustrations to go with his poems, but the imagery is so strong in these poems that a visual illustration almost isn’t needed. While the general imagery is similar in these poems, the details in style are different, and therefore create a slight contrast between the