...William Blake: The Chimney Sweeper William Blake has composed two The Chimney Sweeper, both of which reveal the miserable life of the little chimney sweepers in Britain during the Industrial Revolution. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. --A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens In the comparison between the virtue and the vice of the epoch of Industrial Revolution, Dickens mainly focuses on its dark side. Like Dickens, in the two poems of The Chimney Sweeper, Blake criticizes the cause of unfair and tragic treatment towards the poor children—their greedy parents, the cruel capitalists, the irresponsible government and the unmindful Church. In The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Innocence), the symbols of death exist everywhere, from the death of the mother to the name of the little boy—Dacre (dark), to the coffin. All signify the life is desperate. How to rescue them? In Tom Dacre’s dream, the angel shows him that being a good boy of the God will bring him all the joy. When the reality is too dark to find the entrance of the misery, all we...
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...Literary Analysis Paper COURSE #: English 102-CO1 COURSE TITLE: Comp & Lit Writing Style Manual Used: MLA Thesis Statement: “The Chimney Sweeper” written by William Blake can easily be confused as to whether it is a poem about how hard work and faith can bring you to the Lord or how being naïve can be extremely foolish. Outline I. Introduction a. Discuss what the poem is about b. Thesis statement II. Describe the literal scene and situation III. Discuss the theme of the poem a. Discuss the theme/mood of the poem. b. Discuss the words used to communicate the theme IV. Discuss how rhyme is utilized in the poem and changes the theme/mood V. Conclusion a. Summary b. Restate thesis English 102 25 March 2012 Analysis of “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake “The Chimney Sweeper”, by William Blake begins with a child telling the story of his own life of being sold into slavery by his father. He explains how he was sold very young after his mother’s death before he could barely even cry. As the title states, the boy was sold to be a chimney sweeper. The child then goes into telling the story of another little boy that is there with him named Tom. He explains to the readers how he had witnessed Tom getting a haircut and how Tom cried for the loss of his white hair. The child, narrator...
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...Poetry Summary Poetry Essay n APA William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” is an effective short poem telling the social injustices that the British government was allowing to be placed upon children. Through the use of powerful imagery, Blake provokes readers to empathize with the young children being forced into child labor. I. Introduction A. “The Chimney Sweeper” B. William Blake C. Summary of Plot D. Thesis Statement II. Theme and Mood A. The theme is injustice B. Blake uses imagery to pull at reader’s heart strings C. ex: Little Tom crying when his head is shaved, coffins of black, angel visiting D. Analyze each line and tell which words allude to death and darkness (ex. Coffins of black, the angels visit) III. Figurative Language and Poetic Devices A. Tell how Blake uses rhyme and repetition to enhance the readability and enjoyment of the poem. B. ex: (weep! Weep! Weep!, so your chimneys I sweep) C. Tell how he uses alliteration D. Cite specific examples The use of the letter “s” E. Tell about his use of stressed and unstressed syllables IV. Summary: My interpretation of the poem V. Conclusion A. Restate thesis B. Explain how mood, theme, figurative language, and poetic devices contribute to the overall meaning and readability of the poem. Summary of “The Chimney Sweeper” William Blake’s two poems both entitled “The Chimney Sweeper” are found in “Songs of Innocence and Experience, Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human...
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...English 102-B12 LUO Spring 2014 Joseph P Garland Jr L23810423 MLA A literary analysis of “The Chimney Sweeper.” Social Injustice was rampant among chimney sweeps in 18th and 19th Century England... In the poem “The Chimney Sweeper” from “Songs of Innocence” This paper will evaluate and show the story and writing style dealing with social injustice. 1. Introduction a. The Chimney Sweeper 2. The Location and Era a. 18th and 19th Century England 3. Point of View a. Tom Dacre 4. Writing Style A. Lack of Rhyme 5. Conclusion William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” from “Songs of Innocence” provides a view of extreme social injustice among children being used as chimney sweeps in 18th and 19th Century England. William Blake also in 1794 wrote “The Chimney Sweeper” in “Songs of Experience.” For this essay, the analysis will be of “The Chimney Sweeper” from “Songs of Innocence” written in 1789. This poem shows social injustice from the character’s eyes dealing with oppression, exploitations and death. The life that William Blake creates in “The Chimney Sweeper” is one of social and economic injustice, the use of child labor which leads to a society of that time being un-sympathetic to the needs of its children. Blake draws attention from the first stanza of the poem to a child that has already experienced the death of his mother and being sold into indentured servitude by the father before the child could even process the death and what...
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...Outline of William Blake “The Chimney Sweeper” COURSE # and TITLE___ENGL 102 Literature and Composition_____ SEMESTER OF ENROLLMENT___Summer 2011____________ NAME__Tammy Boylan______________ID #__L23926585_ WRITING STYLE USED_____APA_____________________ In William Blakes, “The Chimney Sweeper”, this poem is told by a chimney sweep who tells of a younger sweep that is sold into slavery by his father, after his mother dies. The main theme of the poem is that of the loss of innocence of these children, who are depicted in the poem under harsh and abusive treatment in the 1800’s. With their innocence stolen by their parents and their owners these children were forced into confined areas filled with comb webs, and dirty sooty conditions, where their lives were sacrificed to their life of cleaning these chimneys, of which they died of young ages. The narrator tells of the young Tom Dacre’s dream of the only way out of this life of misery. 1. Introduction- William Blake writes of his concern for these children’s well being 2. Body Section – The Poem Overview: 1. The boy’s mother dies at young age (Stanza 1) 2. Sold - Loss of Innocence (Stanza 2) 3. Dream (Stanza 3) 4. Angel (Stanza 4) 5. Hope of a Father (Stanza 5) 6. Their duty (Stanza 6) 3. Williams Blake, diction...
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...“The Chimney Sweeper” Fictional Poetry Analysis Stacy McGee Liberty University Eng 102 October 17, 2013 Thesis: The poem, “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake depicts the life of a young boy being sold to sweep chimneys. This paper will give insight into the misery, mood and tones of the poem through the eyes of a young child as a chimney sweeper. Outline: I. Theme A. What is the theme of poem 1. Unkindness 2. Faith II. Setting A. Literal Setting 1. Metaphorical 2. Literal III. Mood A. Elements Contributing 1. Misery 2. Hope and Faith IV. Significance A. Is the title significant to content B. Job/Daily living The Chimney Sweeper deals with life in London in the 18th century. As of today, one would look at the narrator’s story as cruelty, child neglect or even child abuse. As we read the poem, we are going to take a look and dissect certain aspects of poem, such as the theme, setting, mood and significance of the title. To begin with, when reading the poem written in 1789 entitled, “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake, the theme of the poem circulates around poverty, unkindness and faith. When looking at the poem from the poverty perspective, the narrator’s mother died when he was a young boy and his father sells him to be a chimney sweeper, when he was so young, he...
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...The Chimney Sweeper William Blake William Blake is one of the most famous poets in Romanticism era. This period witnessed the Science and Technology Innovation, leading to European Revolution in Europe. William Blake observed deeply and thoroughly changes in human life and he narrated these changes in his poems which typically painted a gloomy, miserable life of the children in the 19th century. However, embedded in this dark color are always the innocence and the optimism of the children hoping for a brighter future. One of his works is The Chimney Sweeper from “Songs of Innocence” which although described the life experience in the 19th century but it is still valid to the present time when millions of children in the third countries are exploited in toxic, life-threatened jobs paid under minimum standard wages. The Chimney Sweeper tells a story of a boy who first introduces some of his background and then tells about his friend named Tom with his dream of working as a chimney sweeper, darkening from head to toe, sleeping in the dark coffin, meeting the angel, wakening and continuing doing his tasks innocently. The main character was sold by his father when he was too young when he even knew how to speak. “Could scarcely cry “ ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!”. I couldn’t imagine why on earth exists such a parent who could behave such cruelly. Just because his mother died young and his father was too poor. The Revolution led to thousand of factories established and provided surplus opportunities...
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...POETRY ESSAY The Chimney Sweeper Thesis Sometimes people are forced to grow and live in the harshest of conditions, it can be hard to see God in those dark and bleak times but those who can, are truly blessed and know that their sufferings will only be temporary. Outline I. Introduction- Bringing to light an appalling state of affairs regarding children who have no loved ones The Chimney sweeper Overview: Sold into child slavery at an early age Forced to grow up quickly Examples of imagery in the poem Hard working conditions Dreams of a better time and place The author uses imagery to describe how the children work and live and their surroundings Why does Blake write this poem is it meant to be depressing or to teach us to be more thankful of the blessings we have Conclusion It’s important for us to remember when we are depressed and feeling blue that things could be much worse and we should be thankful for what we have been given The Chimney Sweeper William Blake Sometimes people are forced to grow and live in the harshest of conditions, it can be hard to see God in those dark and bleak times but those who can, are truly blessed and know that their sufferings will only be temporary. In the poem “The Chimney sweeper” the reader is informed about brutal circumstances children around the world were forced to work and...
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...coffin in William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” William Blake’s “The chimney sweeper” is narrated by a young boy who is a chimney- sweeper, who tells us about his childhood and his fellow workers. In this poem a contrast of dark and light is shown to give the readers a picture of reality and hope. This essay explores the different dimensions, which are significant in this poem. I will argue that the poet is making a contrast between the innocence and the corruption in today’s world by giving examples and by analyzing the poem thoroughly. In the first stanza the narrator shares his childhood story with the readers. He mentions that his mother died when he was very young and his father sold him even before he knew how to speak. “And my father sold me while yet my tongue, /could scarcely cry” (2-3), in this line the poetic device known as metonymy is used where the poet refers to the speakers voice but says tongue. By this line we understand that his father sold him even before he could cry or understand that he is being sold away. He says that since his father sold him he sweeps chimneys and sleeps in soot. It can be assumed that chimney- sweepers use the same cloth or blanket to sleep, which is used in the daytime to collet soot –“in soot I sleep.” Most of the chimney- sweepers who cleaned the chimney were young children as they were little and it is easy for them to crawl up and do cleaning work. Just like the narrator there was another young chimney- sweeper whose name...
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...The Chimney Sweeper Thesis Blake uses many literary devices to portray the hopeless life of the young chimney sweeps. I. Irony II. Imagery III. Symbolism William Blake masterfully uses many literary devices to portray the hopeless life of a young chimney sweep in his poem “The Chimney Sweeper”. The poem has a young, nameless first person narrator which gives the poem a sense of youthful innocence and anonymity that is in direct contradiction to the horrible conditions they suffer. Most of the poem has dark tones that is punctuated by a happy dream of freedom and joy with his true father his creator. The poem ends with a bleak and almost sinister twist of irony that leaves the reader feeling sorrow and shame for the chimney sweepers. Irony is one of the most powerful literary devices employed by Blake. It is seen running through the poem starting with the first lines. The boy’s mother died and his father sold him before he could “cry ‘weep ’weep ’weep. We don’t know why the boy was sold but we could assume that the father wanted to give the boy more opportunity than he could afford to give. This is extremely ironic because the boy is sold into servitude in deplorable, deathly conditions. More irony is evident in the last lines of the poem where the narrator speaks of the sweeper doing their duty to avoid harm. Children should only have the duty of being happy children, not pleasing their masters and working terrible jobs like slaves. Tom’s dream can also be ironic...
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...Kelsey Rice Mr. Ortolani ELA 12 2 February 2016 The Chimney Sweeper In the late 18th century, an English poet by the name of William Blake wrote two poems about the young sweeps he saw suffering in the beautiful streets of London. He placed one poem in the Songs of Innocence and the other in the Songs of Experience. Innocence and Experience were printed in two phases. In 1789, Blake published of The Songs of Innocence and in 1794, he decided to link them together. Blake, therefore, confirmed his interest in duality at the very beginning in the 1794 edition. When he acquired the fate of chimney sweeps as the topic for a poem in both Innocence and Experience, he gave us at least two ways of seeing and understanding the same social predicament. By comparing Blake’s two ‘Chimney Sweeper’ poems, we can get some logic of his state of mind around innocence and experience as ‘contrary states’. The sweep in Innocence doesn’t recognize the life in which he finds himself. “And my father sold me while yet my tongue could scarcely cry ‘Weep! ‘Weep!’ ‘Weep!” This is one of the many poetic strategies that Blake uses. The repetitive word ‘weep’ is used to show that the child’s language is not sufficient to make sense of his sorrowfulness. He does not know that he has been taught a fabricated language, which makes him believe that sorrow must be a fact of everyday life. Blake proposes that as there is a slight difference in the way the words sound to our ears, so there is little difference...
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...“The Chimney Sweeper” By William Blake Poetry Essay Debreshia Wright English 102 Professor Dr. Rockford Sansom Due 9/28/14 “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake, opens a door to show the reader how poor and lower class life was like in the 19th century. In the poem by Mr. William Blake “The Chimney Sweeper” the reader learns about the harsh child labor during the 19th century, the fate of a young child and this child belief in God. These young children had a hard life to lead but through this poem you see how these children were able to escape in there thought of heaven. During the 19th century child labor was a normal way of life. It was so much more important to bring home wages than to get educated. Most families were so poor they had to send the children out at very young ages to help gain wages. Mr. Blake expresses this when he says “...my father sold me...” the child narrator was sold in to what seems to be child slavery. In the poem as the child said “yet my tongue could scarcely cry weep, weep…” it refers to the child not being able to speak clearly to say sweep. This child fate appears to have been sealed when his mother died; it also appears the child would make his father appear cruel and unloving. Because the child says “my father sold me...” it does not state my father sent me to work. This poem has a sense of sadness in the beginning, until the child narrator being to talk to Tom. Tom was having his hair shaved off and I am...
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...in the poem "the chimney sweeper", blake offers a graphic portrayal of a particular cultural aspects of england in the 1700s. He seeks to show thier loss of innocence in thier childhood by showing chimney sweeper takes away children's freedom and joy. in 1700s, william blake composed a poem about the life of chimney sweeper in "the chimney sweeper". the poem is narrated by a chimney sweeper. he tells a little bit about himself before giving us the lowdoen on another chimney sweeper, tom dacre. after introducing us to tom, he relates a very strange dream that tom had one night, it invovled chimney sweepers in coffins, angels flying, and few othe bizzare things. the poem concludes with tom and the speaker wking up and going to work, sweepin' like they do. in this poem of innocecse i'll prove against child labor; children whi works at thier early ages. in first stanza the narrator tells about a child who is sold by his father after his mother's death. as in first line it says, "when my mother died i was very yoiung". i clarifies, while he was very young his faher sold him to a man who runs chimney sweeper buisness. he started working as a chimey sweeper at his very young age and became a victim of abuse and child labor. in actuality, he was forced to work and clean chimneys without any clothes and shleter. instead of taking care of him his fatgher sold him for money. narrator changes the character in second stanza bu saying "there is a tom dacre who..." from this we can know...
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...William Blake wrote two poems with different versions of the Chimney Sweeper. They both describe the lives of two children who clean chimneys and live a harsh life. Blake uses poetic devices such as imagery, tone, symbolism and allusions throughout the poems. In both versions of the poems images of death are demonstrated using the color black. In the version of 1789, Blake says, “were all lock’d up in coffins of black.”, a in the version of 1794, Blake says, “little black thing among the snow”. This demonstrates the soot of the children walking in the snow, maybe going from home to home cleaning chimneys. Moreover, in the 1789 version he illustrates the chimneys ass black like coffins maybe because they are both claustrophobic and very dark. Since the chimneys are very small and pitch dark due to the soot....
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...which children started work in early 19th- century Britain was 10 years old, but that this varied widely between regions. In industrial areas, children started work on average at eight and a half years old. Most of these young workers entered the factories as piecers, standing at the spinning machines repairing breaks in the thread. A few started as scavengers, crawling beneath the machinery to clear it of dirt, dust or anything else that might disturb the mechanism. In the mines, children usually started by minding the trap doors, picking out coals at the pit mouth, or by carrying picks for the miners. Charles Dickens, William Blake and Elizabeth Barrett Browning responses to child labour in their literary masterpieces. In his essay, I want to show the authors present the term in their works. 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...
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