James Gwin
Chimney Sweepers With both The Chimney Sweeper: Songs of Innocence and The Chimney Sweeper: Songs of Experience, William Blake describes the poor conditions of children who worked as chimney sweepers. Although both of these poem are similar because they both express imagery about the concern of the bad conditions for child chimney sweepers, these poems also differ in tone and some details concerning the mistreatment of children. William Blake makes both of these poems very similar by showing the same imagery. This imagery expresses the mistreating of children working as chimney sweepers. This imagery is shown in The Chimney Sweeper: Songs of Experience when William Blake writes “They clothed me in the clothes of death,” showing how the child’s working conditions are going to lead to his death (SOE 7). This imagery is again showed in Blake’s other poem The Chimney Sweeper: Songs of Innocence. When Blake says “So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep,” he shows how a child is mistreated by having to sweep people’s chimneys day and night (SOI 4). The child is shown that his whole life revolves around this unfair job, and he sleeps in the soot. Although these poems have many similar aspects, they are actually different in many details. While The Chimney Sweeper: Songs of Experience focused more on how so many people overlooked the mistreatment of chimney sweepers and expect to go to heaven, The Chimney Sweeper: Songs of Innocence revolves around a former chimney sweeper who has a dream about God saving people. When William Blake says “They think they have done me no injury” in The Chimney Sweeper: Songs of Experience, it shows that the people didn’t have the heart to realize how they were mistreating children (SOE 10). Blake also brings up that these people are also expecting to go to heaven where they will end up being miserable. Blake expresses this thought when he says “Who make up a heaven of our misery" (SOE 12). However The Chimney Sweeper: Songs of Innocence revolves around different details. Instead of expressing details on how people are going to live a miserable life in heaven, Blake shows details on how God will give the child a life where he will “never want joy” (SOI 20). This shows that the child’s life in heaven will only be joyful, and he would not even have to search for any of it. God says that all
Vanessa Rios Proff. Brian Gott Poem Paper 02 March 2015 The Chimney Sweeper songs of Innocence and Experience The poems The chimney Sweeper songs of Innocence and The Chimney sweeper songs of Experience are both written by William Blake. The poems are about children that are forced to sweep chimneys. These poems are very alike despite being written 5 years apart. Even though the titles of the poems are nearly the same the tones of the poems are different. One of the difference…
William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” (Songs of Innocence) and William Wordworth’s “We Are Seven” examine naivety and innocence in a much different manner. The two poems deal with children and their respective methods of coping with tragedy in their lives. In both poems, the children deal with adversity by relying on denial, but the two poets use different tones to impart to the reader their specific views on innocence and denial. Blake treats innocence with disdain and mocks the conventional…
Leslie Holland English Lit Survey Dr. Clark September 13, 2014 Comparing and Contrasting “The Chimney Sweeper” and “Three Years She Grew” As Romantic writers of their time, both William Blake and William Wordsworth wrote about what they would experience in life, spirituality, and nature. Blake wrote more about life experiences, the innocence of children and the innocence found in nature while Wordsworth wrote more about nature’s ability to remove life and innocence and leave us broken but able to…
Jason Skidmore Dr. Namorah Gayle Byrd English 102-16 24 March 2015 Analysis of “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake William Blake was a 19th century writer and artist who was a big influence for the Romantic Age. Blake was born, 1757 in London, England, Blake began writing at an early age and studied engraving and loved Gothic Art, Blake only briefly attended school, being primarily educated at home by his mother. In August 1782, Blake married Catherine Boucher, who was uneducated, so he then…
and William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper,” the protagonists are both poor children growing up without their parents whose circumstances force them to find ways to escape their miserable life conditions. In “Araby,” the boy lives in a dirty, poor, blind-ended street. He spends his pathetic life infatuated with his next-door neighbor who doesn’t reciprocate his feelings. In “The Chimney Sweeper,” Tom Dacre is an indigent little boy who is obligated to clean dusty chimneys and to sleep in soot. His…
suffering isn’t evidence enough to support the claim that he is in the “Generation” state of the soul; the support for this claim is that he holds someone responsible for these cruelties (the church and government). He continues to say “How the Chimney-sweepers cry/ Every blackening Church appalls” (9, 10). In saying this, he suggests that the churches want nothing to do with the poor, and the churches' walls are blackened, metaphorically, for that reason. So he is not naïve to think, as one in the…
Furniture of Humanity (The Metamorphosis) Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis tells the story man named Gregor who wakes up from “unsettling dreams” and finds himself transformed into a “monstrous vermin” (1). Kafka utilizes various symbols to provide insight into the life of Gregor and his relationship with his family. Some of the major symbolisms in the novella are furniture, which represent the Gregor’s self-conscious and human side. One of the furniture that best symbolizes the Gregor’s dualistic…
world? Chosen ten poems: Seamus Heaney, ‘Death of a Naturalist’ (B.L.C.A.) Sylvia Plath, ‘Mushrooms’ (B.L.C.A.) Sylvia Plath, ‘You’re’ (B.L.C.A.) Sylvia Plath, ‘Blackberrying’ William Blake, ‘Infant Joy’ and ‘Infant Sorrow’ William Blake, THE Chimney Sweeper’ William Blake, ‘LONDON’ Maureen Watson, ‘Stepping Out’ (B.L.C.A.) Bobbi Sykes, ‘One Day’ (B.L.C.A.) The work of poets such as Sylvia Plath and William Blake present a predominantly despairing view of the world. It is evident that hope and despair…
quality of the last three lines support the pacing of the story? William Blake, “The Lamb,” “The Chimney Sweeper (Innocence),” “Holy Thursday (Innocence)” Each of these poems explores the theme of innocence by discussing children at work. Identify each poem’s meter, and then discuss how this type of meter and rhyme is supportive of the poem’s theme. William Blake, “The Tyger,” “The Chimney Sweeper (Experience),” and “Holy Thursday (Experience)” Each of these poems explores the theme of experience…
Name: ________________________________________________ English 12 Credit 5 The Romantic Period Pacing Guide Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 COMPLETE pp. 1-4 COMPLETE pp. 4-9 COMPLETE pp. 9-14 COMPLETE pp. 14-17 COMPLETE pp. 18-19 INCLUDING LITERARY PERIOD TEST Question #4 INCLUDING CHAPTER 5 TEST—PART B Question #10 INCLUDING READING RESPONSE Question #6 INCLUDING the WRITING ACTIVITY (Rough Draft) PRESENT YOUR ROUGH DRAFT TO YOUR…