...“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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...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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...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 was Tom...
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...THESIS STATEMENT & OUTLINE 1) THESIS - The injustices that juvenile chimney sweepers had to endure were selfish, inhumane and riddled with neglect. a) Introduction b) Slavery parallels i) Worked long hours ii) Malnourished iii) Health hazards a) Biblical allusion iv) Sacrificed for selfishness v) Cleansed vi) Reborn vii) Angelic savior b) Theme viii) Innocence ix) Naïve c) Conclusion William Blake’s statement “I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans” appears prophetic in his poem “The Chimney Sweeper”. This becomes apparent in the introduction when the narrator states after his mother’s died he was “sold” into slavery by his father, before he was old enough to verbalize the work he was made to do. The adults in the story failed to protect the innocence of the main characters that had very little choice in the way they lived during this time. Although, there were child labor laws set in place to look after the young workers, for selfish reasons, they were seldom enforced. Robert Blake’s poem “The Chimney Sweeper” is set in London, England during a time when it was common for children to work long hours, for minimal pay and in hazardous conditions. The poem is divided into two sections; it begins in the first stanza with the narrator being the main focus and then later shift to the character Tom Dacre. Who appears...
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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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...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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...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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...Analysis “The Chimney Sweeper” comprises six quatrains, each following the AABB rhyme scheme, with two rhyming couplets per quatrain. The first stanza introduces the speaker, a young boy who has been forced by circumstances into the hazardous occupation of chimney sweeper. The second stanza introduces Tom Dacre, a fellow chimney sweep who acts as a foil to the speaker. Tom is upset about his lot in life, so the speaker comforts him until he falls asleep. The next three stanzas recount Tom Dacre's somewhat apocalyptic dream of the chimney sweepers’ “heaven.” However, the final stanza finds Tom waking up the following morning, with him and the speaker still trapped in their dangerous line of work. There is a hint of criticism here in Tom Dacre's dream and in the boys' subsequent actions, however. Blake decries the use of promised future happiness as a way of subduing the oppressed. The boys carry on with their terrible, probably fatal work because of their hope in a future where their circumstances will be set right. This same promise was often used by those in power to maintain the status quo so that workers and the weak would not unite to stand against the inhuman conditions forced upon them. As becomes more clear in Blake's Songs of Experience, the poet had little patience with palliative measures that did nothing to alter the present suffering of impoverished families. What on the surface appears to be a condescending moral to lazy boys is in fact a sharp criticism of a culture...
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...Poetry Essay, Thesis, and 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) ...
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...living the lives his works vicariously told, but once his time period ended, a historical book was left behind. The theme of a struggle is most prominently showcased in Blake’s poetry. Whether it be Blake depicting women and their power struggle throughout the 18th or 19th century, or depicting the lives of the children put into the labor force at a very early age. These children were put in a tunnel (almost literally when they worked in the chimneys), where there was no light at the end, this path had one and only one destination: death. The symbolism in Blake’s poetry accurately reflects the cruel conditions of child labor and the environment of hostility in which these children lived and breathed every day, what the church meant in society in the 18th century, and the family dynamics. Clearly marking its importance by publishing multiple items on the subject, William Blake composed two poems about children working in the chimney sweeps both titled “The Chimney Sweeper”. The transition of emotions from the first “The Chimney Sweeper” to the second demonstrates an evolution from purity to exposure (Mayhew 1), which correlates directly to the title of the book in which these poems were published, “ Songs of Innocence and Experience.” Blake’s poetry appears to be detailed to a point where one begins to feel the emotions these people did, if only we could imagine. The vivid images he paints strike as surprising upon learning his background. William Blake had a limited...
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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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...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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... joy in the noonday. ‘‘And we are put on earth a little space, That we may learn to bear the beams of love And these black bodies and this sunburnt face Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove. ‘‘For when our souls have learn’d the heat to bear, The cloud will vanish, we shall hear His voice, Saying, ’Come out from the grove, my love and care And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice’,’’ Thus did my mother say, and kissed me; And thus I say to little English boy. When I from black and he from white cloud free, And round the tent of God like lambs we joy I’ll shade him from the heat till he can bear To lean in joy upon our Father’s knee; And then I’ll stand and stroke his silver hair, And be like him, and he will then love me. THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER A little black thing in the snow, Crying ‘‘weep! weep!’’ in notes of woe! ‘‘Where are thy father and mother? Say!’’— ‘‘They are both gone up to the church to pray. ‘‘Because I was happy upon the heath, And smiled among the winter’s snow, They clothed me in the clothes of death, And taught me to sing the notes of woe. ‘‘And because I am happy and dance and sing, They think they have done me no injury, And are gone to praise God and his priest and king, Who make up a heaven of our misery.’’...
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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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