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Comparing The Chimney Sweep And Songs Of Innocence And Experience

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William Blake's The Chimney Sweep and Songs of Innocence and Experience

In this essay I will attempt to analyse, compare and contrast the poems 'The Chimney Sweep' from both 'Songs of Experience' and 'Songs of Innocence' which were both written by 'William Blake' in 1790-92 and 1789 respectively. These two poems were amalgamated in 1794 to create a new collection called 'Songs of Innocence and Experience'.

I will be looking at what Blake says and hints at concerning the 'two contrary states of the human soul' in the two poems as well as looking at the message Blake is trying to convey to the reader. As the poems are written regarding the same subject, that is a chimney sweep, I will be looking at how they differ in their …show more content…

This was because of the huge power the rich and wealthy possessed; they could pay people less and lay workers off without the fear of them taking mass industrial action because people were so desperate for the money and would not have even have thought have taking such action. Over the years life got harder for the working class year by year and was basically a constant battle to stay alive, which many were losing. Due to the fact that people were so poor, the burden of contributing to the family income was placed on children even earlier and this quite often meant working as a chimney sweep from the age of four, a topic explored in Blake's two poems. Life expectancy was short and if you were unfortunate enough to be a chimney sweep you were seen to be doing well if you got past the age of ten. Money generally means power and at that time in the world it was especially true and actually to a greater degree and so the more money you had the more power and authority you had and if you were rich enough you could not only have an influence on the area of the country you lived in but also be influential in the running of the country. Consequently due to the totally disproportionate spread of power within the country, people who were very poor had absolutely no say in the

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