Social Criticism In The Chimney Sweeper

“The Chimney Sweeper” (128): This version of the Chimney Sweeper is very upfront and saddening. The version that is presented in the songs of innocence is much more of a calm town and is not as straightforward, while this version is very short and to the point. In this version its very deep as the narrator basically just calls out the parents/church for doing these horrible things to the children. I really love all three stanzas of this poem because they all have a really deep meaning and Blake transitions through them very well. Reading this poem over and over I don’t know what to make of it other than it is an absolute horrible situation. I think it can be tied in to

The second stanza is almost like the first in the fact that it appeals to the same senses. It talks about the actions and the feelings of the child. It describes how the child would wake and wait for his father to call him. The second stanza also describes the mood of the house in the line, "fearing the chronic angers of that house." Perhaps that line is

Both “The Chimney Sweepers” poems were written during the industrial revolution. During the industrial revolution families were living in poverty, and times were challenging. Often times for families to survive they would sell their children to master sweeps, or master sweeps would welcome orphans and homeless children into the industry of menial labour. They used children between the ages of five to ten depending on their size. Parents would often sell their children younger, because their small frames were more desirable. Even though “The Chimney Sweeper” (1789) and “The Chimney Sweeper” (1794) were written five years apart they show many similarities and differences.

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.

William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” in his Songs of Innocence is a literary masterpiece that is still relevant and impactful in the modern world. In lovely form and description, Blake explains the atrocities and hardships of the Industrial Age in a poem suitable for school-age children and with the beautiful simplicity that only a writer like Blake could produce. The Songs of Innocence is a look into the purity and wonderful outlook on life that children usually have. While in its counterpart, the Songs of Experience, Blake uses adults as protagonist. The Songs of Experience is a look at the effects that hardships and failures have on adults, therefore having a pessimistic outlook toward life. In his these two works, Blake produces a parallel universe between childhood and adulthood where the optimism of dreams of childhood and the bitterness and stagnation of adulthood never seem to know one another.

The Chimney Sweepers was published in 1789 and 1794. William Blake was the author of both poems that are named the same thing but are honestly completely different.

The poem is sectioned into six quatrains, which follow the following pattern: reality, reality, dream, dream, dream, and reality. Through use of this poetic device, the poet presents the impression to the reader that it is inevitable that reality must always be returned to, and that the children will have no escape from their labour. Though the dream may present the impression that it is a welcome escape, it only serves to further emphasise the cruel conditions of the child’s life. ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ falls into the category of a lyrical poem, which presents it to the reader as a song of sorts, almost akin to a nursery rhyme. Traditionally, nursery rhymes are sung to young children, emphasising the narrator’s naive tone. The irony in this must also be noted, as the child ought to be protected by his parents singing to him as he falls asleep; he should not be partaking in the dangerous occupation he has been forced

Throughout the poems, us the readers, visualized the different techniques William Blake uses. As well as how different and similar both of them are. The Chimney Sweeper, in my opinion, talks about how the parents of a child don’t really want him or her in their lives because of how they are trying to get rid of them. Yet on the second poem, Blake went straight to the point by not using many stanzas. He uses several types of figurative language that guide us through both of the poems. Which made them sound more interesting and understandable to the readers.

Although William Blake died almost entirely unknown, his works influenced readers long after his death because he challenged important issues, such as religion. His works Songs of Innocence and Experience demonstrated the hypocrisy and corruption of the Church and State, by showing situations seen through the eyes of those that are innocent and those that are experienced. For example, in his two poems both titled “The Chimney Sweeper”, he brings attention to the cruelty of children being sold into slavery by their parents and the ideology that allows them to do so without guilt. The poem “The Chimney Sweeper” in the Innocence collection, ends when the boy Tom was visited by an angel who promised him a place in heaven and

The narrator speaks of what could symbolise the lower or working class "the Chimney-sweeper", crying out against the system, and the upper class "Church" subduing them. Both the chimney and church are personified to symbolise the people they represent. This dominance is also related in the personification of "Soldier" and "Palace". The soldiers fight the wars that the monarchy decides, their blood on the King and Queen's hands. They sigh as to their shared plight, but their sighs only end in their deaths. This stanza's rhythm is different in that it follows a heptameter meter. Its pace is faster, which might reflect an increase in excitement by the narrator in what might be anger.

can be when they are sent away from their families to work at a very

Housman too, is looking to use imagery to find emotion within his readers. He is drawing an image of the town carrying this young athlete’s coffin to his grave. Walking down the same road they once carried him after he had won a big race. The tables have turned and the town is no longer cheering. They are mourning the loss of the athlete, which is the image a reader receives. With that image comes sorrow and sadness. Just like in “The Chimney Sweeper”. These two poems do not just describe the sadness of the story being told. Each have a couple lines that refer to the good and happier days. The difference is “The Chimney Sweeper” uses imagery to refer to a world these children could only dream of. A happier place, they would only see in their

Therefore we have two poems which are deliberately changing their structure from the norm in order to create effect. However, these effects have totally different intentions, which lead to the end of the similarities and the first of many differences between the two poems.

     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.

The first stanzas of both poems establish that the children have been forsaken by their parents and were left in the role of a chimney sweeper. The Innocence poem’s rhyme scheme consists of two couplets per quatrain. The couplets create a sound similar to nursery rhymes (which often mask dark events, like the Black plague). The Experience poem begins with rhyming couplets in a quatrain, but switches to ABAB rhymes in the second stanza. Some of the end rhymes are just barely off, which causes a slight feeling of uneasiness.