Social Criticism in William Blakes 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

“Without contraries, there is no progression.” These words of William Blake encompass his philosophy as a writer. In his work Songs of Experience, William Blake depicts human nature as fallen. Specifically, in “London” he explores the dangerous conditions of England at a time when industrialization, prostitution, poverty and child labor were prevalent. Over the course of “London,” Blake’s diction evolves from ambiguous to symbolic, ultimately illuminating the theme that the mindset of man is what oppresses him, not the social institutions in place, and in order to free himself man must break his bond with death.

Blake could be saying that if the world were not under man's control, and if the poor people were free from oppression, poverty would not exist. Poverty is the result of man's own selfishness. In "The Chimney Sweeper" and "Holy Thursday" there are many recurring symbols and themes including the callous attitude of parents to children. In "The Chimney Sweeper" the children are referred to as "little black things".

     Blake also uses startling irony in this poem. This irony shocks the reader into realization of how terrible life is for these small boys. Some of the verbal irony Blake uses lies in the first stanza. The poetic voice claims that “[his] father sold [him] while yet [his] tongue/ Could scarcely cry ‘ ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!’'; (554). These words have a double meaning. They can mean that the speaker was not yet over mourning for his mother, or they can mean that he was so young that he was not yet able to sound out the s sound properly. In this case, he would stand on the corner and, instead of repeating the word sweep in an attempt at getting someone to hire him, he would repeat the word “‘weep!’'; (554). Another, more startling irony is that these young children hoped and lived for death because only in the after life could they become children. Blake emphasizes this with the

In the novel, the father and boy have a strong relationship in which the father would risk his own life to save his son’s, displaying that love triumphs all. It is through acts of genuine tenderness, like when the man wakes up, “in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd

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

At the beginning, when the main character is introduced to the nursery that she will be staying in, the author describes it in an unusual way “I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls” (Gilman pg. 845). Although, she suggests that these unusual anomalies are for the children’s well-being, it could also suggest the nursery is

Children of a lower social rank were not fortunate enough to receive and education and instead were expected to learn nothing except how to master their given trade. In his poem, Blake implies that due to organized religion and society failing them, these working children were only free in their dreams. He writes about a dream in which an angel came to Tom Dacre and all the sweepers with a key and unlocked them from their black coffins. This symbolizes freeing the boys from their seven by seven holes that they were confined to each day. Once freed by the angel, the boys were no longer required to work and were free to roam and play in the fields similar to how the children of the middle and upper class had done. Enjoying their freedom, the boys, “wash in a river and shine in the Sun” ridding themselves of the soot that had become embedded in their skin as they soaked in the warmth of the sun (Blake 15-16). The angel then came to Tom and told him that “if he'd be a good boy, / He'd have God for his father & never want joy” (Blake 19-20). Tom’s dream acts as a tool for Blake to comment on the lack of involvement and help from the Church upon the failure to do their

Initially this romantic poem is an experience poem that Blake has written. How it has experience is that it shows what the child and children that he is with has gone through. He's not innocent he has seen the cruelness of the world, the fact that he was sold to work cleaning chimneys shows experience. He and the others have to live the hardships of working to survive getting up early before the sun rises and get started on cleaning the chimneys all around. There innocence was taken away from them as soon as

The third stanza first mentions “the chimney-sweeper’s cry” (Blake 9). There is another poem by William Blake that specifically goes into a chimney sweeper’s job, but chimney sweepers are normally young boys who clean people’s chimneys. The working conditions are quite terrible, and they often sleep in the soot that they clean, it is just a very dirty and dreadful situation.

Following this, “The Little Boy Lost” represents the human spirit, seeking God in a sinful world that inquires to hide the signs of His existence. The little boy say, “Father, father, / where are you going? / O do not walk so fast! / Speak, father, speak to your little boy, / Or else I shall be lost’”

In the following plate, "The Little Boy Found," Blake reconciles the negative image of the priest and religion that was presented in the previous work. It begins by telling the tale of the boy who got lost by following the "wandering light," representative of the church's blinding standards for religion. God hears the boy's cries and comes to his rescue "like his father in white." This could be referring to God appearing as a human in the image of his father. God leads the child back to his mother. The mother had been looking for her child who had been led off track by the misconception of the "mind forged manacles" of religion.

     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 both of William Blake’s poems, “The Little Black Boy” and “The Chimney Sweeper,” an innocent-eye point of view portrays the stresses of society in an alternative way to an adult’s understanding. The innocent perspective redirects focus onto what society has become and how lacking each narrator is in the eyes of the predominant white culture. Each naïve speaker also creates an alternate scenario that presents a vision of what their skewed version of life should be like, showing how much their unfortunate youth alters their reality. From the viewpoint of children, Blake’s poems highlight the unhealthy thoughts or conditions in their lives and how unfortunate they were to be the wrong race or class level. These narrators were cheap laborers and were in no control of how society degraded them. Such usage of a child’s perspective offers important insight into the lives of these poor children and raises awareness for the horrible conditions children faced in the London labor force prior to any labor laws. The children of the time had no voice or platform on which to express their opinions on their conditions. Blake targets society’s lack of mindfulness towards the children using the innocent-eye point of view and illusions of what they dream for in life.

In order to condemn the materialistic society, Blake uses the irony of the Tom Dacre’s dream, the boy’s encouragement to a new chimney sweeper, and their hopeful beliefs. Tom Dacre dreams that the chimney sweepers are “locked up in coffins of black” (line 12) and have been happily set free by angels; ironically, the sweepers are joyful that they have freed oppression and gone to heaven. Children should not dream about death at such a young age. Blake emphasizes the insensitive society that would victimize children and allow them to feel this way. In order to comfort a new sweeper into a lifestyle of devastation, the speaker says, “Hush, Tom” (line 7) before he receives a haircut. The pitiful child speaker is living a miserable life and yet capable of comforting another child who is new to this