Theme Of Cruelty Towards Children In The Poem The Chimney Sweeper

The strongest usage of metaphor in this poem is in the first stanza in the line “write their knees with necessary scratches”. While scratches cannot be written, words can, so this insinuates that children learn with nature, and that despite its fading presence in today’s urban structures, it is a necessary learning tool for children. The poet has used this metaphor to remind the reader of their childhood, and how important it is to not just learn from the confines of a classroom, but in the world outside. This leads to create a sense of guilt in the reader for allowing such significant part of a child’s growing up to disintegrate into its concrete surroundings. Although a positive statement within itself, this metaphor brings upon a negative

The children are unnoticed by others and the mother is the only one that is protecting them. This poem shows the hard times that the mother must face because her children have died. However the mother is coping with them while still protecting her children after they have died, This is the mother's way of coping because she is not yet ready to let go of her children and still wants to care for them. This poem shows this through nature by portraying the mother as a bird who is protecting her nest. Also the poem uses nature by describing the harsh times as a winter wind that has caused harm to the mother and her children.

“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

‘Prayer before Birth’ is a dark and disturbing poem written from the point of view of the unborn child who is preaching to God that when he is born, hoping he is not affected by the horrors of society. Macneice 's negative views towards current society are shown through the fetus’ spiteful thoughts; in the fifth stanza, Macneice lists how the unborn child wants to avoid ‘bureaucrats’ hectoring him, avoid being laughed at ‘by lovers’ and not be frowned at by ‘mountains’-this portrays how paranoid the fetus is. Not only is he worried about being judged by ordinary people, but also the landscape surrounding him. The influence of nature will affect his unspoilt unborn form, but he should not be looking at it pessimistically. One of the most powerful effects used by Macneice is the repetition of the phrase ‘I am not born yet.’ This emphasises the fact that he has not yet

The tone of the poem changes as the poem progresses. The poem begins with energetic language like “full of heroic tales” and “by a mere swing to his shoulder”. The composer also uses hyperboles like “My father began as a god” and “lifted me to heaven”. The use of this positive language indicates to the responder that the composer is longing for those days – he is nostalgic. It also highlights the perspective of a typical child. The language used in the middle of the poem is highly critical of his father: “A foolish small old man”. This highlights the perspective of a typical teenager and signifies that they have generally conflicting views. The language used in the last section of the poem is more loving and emotional than the rest: “...revealing virtues such as honesty, generosity, integrity”. This draws attention to a mature adult’s perspective.

In this poem, symbolism is used to help reader’s find deeper meaning in the little things included and show that everything comes back to the father’s fear of the child he adores growing older and more independent. “In a room full of books in a world of stories, he can recall not one, and soon he thinks the boy will give up on his father.” This sentence makes a reader assume that the story the five year old so

Never mind it, for when your head’s bare, You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair” (line 6-8). Also in the fifth stanza Tom describes his dream. “Then naked and white, all their bags left behind, They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind; And the angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy, He’d have God for his father, and never want joy” (line 21-24). He dreams that after chimney sweepers die they go on to see God and live happily. The children just have to pay the price on earth before they have happiness, but they were all very hopeful. However, the children’s mood changes completely in Songs of Experience. “And because I am happy and sing, They think they have done me no injury” (line 9-10). The children are becoming more and more bitter. All their hope is being lost overtime. Now the children don’t think they have a plan for the future. This lifestyle has had a major impact on their life. Being chimney sweepers, being tormented and having to endure terrible conditions.

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.

The idea of innocence loss is prominent in the last three stanzas because this is the part of the story where the child begins to understand the world. In order to make this transition, Thomas uses rhetorical situations such as tone and symbolism to convey the shift. In the fourth stanza, Thomas uses the child’s sleeping as a symbolism for the dark coming, meaning the idea of maturity and aging is hinted. This initiation equates the beginning of the world of maturity, and the end of youth. It also involves the loss of innocence, freedom, and purity. The loss of innocence also infers that the child’s unification with nature is no more, since the setting is referred to the Garden of Eden, the child’s ability to create and fantasize is no longer possible. Despite the clear transition where the child is starting to understand the implications of the world outside of his own, he continues to ignore its heavy presence. In the fifth stanza, the child continues to enjoy the paradise of youth, with the author describing his attitude as he “[runs his] heedless ways.” The author describes the child’s reluctant actions by using a rhetorical situation called register. Register helps the language of this poem to give it authenticity, and meaning to the themes. Thomas displays some of his Welch register in the poem, giving the poem a more genuine feel. In stanza five, Thomas uses a phrase “sky

The rainbow, an extended metaphor, symbolises an epiphany, a sudden realisation that is imbued with hope. The symbolism for the rainbow can also biblically allude to a more religious revelation, where the blacksmith boy has embraced ‘god’ into his life. This symbolism along with the contrast between the two images “But in front of the night the rainbow stood on the mountain”, hints to humanity’s capability of change even in the direst of times. The following lines “He ran like a hare, he climbed like a fox” are similes, to show the blacksmith boy’s newfound affinity with nature, and his rediscovered sense of self. The further similes used in the following lines, “Like a bar of ice, like the column of a fountain, like a ring of gold.” describe the rainbow, in increasing levels of brilliance, from a bar of ice to a ring of gold, this depicts the blacksmith boy’s gradual dawning on the significance of his revelation, figuratively portraying the value of humanity’s affliction with nature or biblically, the importance of god in our lives.

Though William Blake was a religious man, he held ‘a highly critical attitude toward the religious conventions of the established church, which [he] identified […] as the “state religion” […] with notorious “state tricksters”’. This is explicitly conveyed through his two versions of ‘Holy Thursday’ in both ‘Songs of Innocence’ and ‘Songs of Experience’. In the ‘Songs of Innocence’ version, though on the surface it seems sweet and sublime, there is an underlying danger and brutality to the words expressed. For example, in the first quatrain, the children are described to be “walking two & two in red & blue & green”. Although this use of bright, simplistic colours gives the impression of childhood, hope and joy, there is a sinister undertone, hinting at the colours being bruises on the children’s skin, from being beaten from the euphemistic “wand” that the “grey-headed beadles” held. Also, the notion that they are to walk “two & two” suggests a large amount of control from their

“The Chimney Sweeper” is a poem written by William Blake (1757 –1827). His main aim is to expose the social defects in his age and the vices which afflict his society and to confront his readers with the dreadful suffering of the working paupers. According to Blake, the chimney-sweeping life is not a life at all; the labourer children have lost their childhood, their freedom, and their innocence. He criticizes the victimisation of children and the injustice of this oppressive labour. He shows how Tom; the chimney sweeper and other children suffer from long hard labour in addition to physical and psychological abuse. Blake insists that these children are living in abject and inhumane conditions of deprivation, misery and humiliation

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.

The works of William Blake cannot be entirely discussed, so my project particularly focuses on 'Songs of Innocence and Experience'.

Some of William Blake’s poetry is categorized into collections called Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Blake explores almost opposite opinions about creation in his poems “The Lamb” and “The Tiger.” While the overarching concept is the same in both, he uses different subjects to portray different sides of creation; however, in the Innocence and Experience versions of “The Chimney Sweeper,” Blake uses some of the same words, rhyme schemes, and characters to talk about a single subject in opposite tones.