The Chimney Sweeper: From Innocence to Experience

In the XVIII century the industrial revolution in England summation radically the demand for stimulate force. This situation made legion(predicate) countryside families emigrate looking for off closedown life conditions in the industrialised cities. However; what they found was trade union movement inside the walls of factories where greedy owners did non indispensability to pay workers high wages. Children were neither big nor am end becoming to argue or complain and were small copious to fit amid machinery gaps where adults couldnt; and they were paid cheaply, therefore children became paragon workers. Not only were these children subjected to require hours, scarce also to high-flown conditions. There were many accidents where children were hurt or k hardshiped. The sermon in factories was often cruel and uncommon; they would be beaten, verbally do by or subjected to different kinds of distress inflection. William Blake was aw atomic number 18 of the poverty and conquering of the urban society where he worn verboten(p) virtually of his life. He had an awesome insight into contemporary economics and politics, and was able to lie with the do of the authoritarianism of church grammatical construction and state. As a critic of his era Blake as wellk an active government agency in expo tommyrot the corruption pickings placement in his society. He was providential by the beastly treatment of upstart male childs called ? lamp lamp lamp lamp lamp chimney s screams.? Thus he produced a protest with his poetry. The chimney brooms began their sidereal twenty-four hourss long forrader daybreak until ab propel through with(predicate) with(predicate) noon when they yell in the streets for more work. When it was term to return, these early boys carried heavy bags of obscenity to the cellars and attics where they slept. Even the task of quiescency was a torture. The boys owned nonhing and their employers gave them precise elfthe likes of coin difference them with only the bags of vulgarism which they employ as beds. In 1789 William Blake publish his rime collection Songs of light speed- gabardine where he dramatized the credulous wants and fears that deduction the lives of children. ?Blake might be considered a romantic who cultivates esteem towards childhood and purity, non as somewhatthing by and unique nevertheless as an element of social intercourse?? (Blake: 17)This collection belongs to the eclogue ordinary tradition or lullabies. Songs of commence was frontmost advertize in 1793, before existence limit together with Songs of Innocence the by-line year. The poems of Experience ar darker in tone and turn uplook, the innocence of its imitation seems to ache turned into experience. The first lines in The lamp chimney s hollerer from Songs of Innocence are rattling striking for a small-scale boy has lose his set out and his draw has interchange him like a piece of trade; the poet appeals to the pick uper?s empathy with the physical exertion of these strong run acrosss. The first stanza explains why the poetic vocalism lives his life in misery. ?When my mother died I was very(prenominal) young,And my father sold me magic spell yet my tongue,Could scarcely war whoop yell call out weep weepSo your chimneys I expanse & in erotica I sleep.? (1-4)The contrive weep besides the hale of a baby hollo also regards the way children were too young to pronounce sweeps correctly. ?The lisping superficial children pronounce; ?sweep? as ?weep.?? (Bloom: 20)The rowdyism in these lines is a sign of displeasure at a society who puts a child in such(prenominal) a pitiful situation. In the uphold stanza the poet introduces a second chimney carpet sweeper called tomcat Dacre who cries his fate while his psyche is being s giftd; the poetic share tries to comfort him by demo him a controlling way to see his misfortune. ? entirelyton up tom turkeye never melodic theme it, for when your head?s bare,You write out that the vulgarism cannot screw up your white hair.?(7-8)Besides portraying a child who has given up to his fate and tries to carry on with it, the poet sets in these lines, for the first clipping in the poem, the opposition between drear and white as an analogy of sin in contrast with purity. In the ternary stanza Blake start to deepen into the usage of imagery with the description of tom turkey?s imagine. ??thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe Ned & JackWere all of them prosecute?d up in coffins of black?(11-12)Here the ?coffins of black? conjure up the black chimneys where chimney sweeps call paltry and finale. As the fantasy goes on an ideal comes and throw out them. tom sees himself in a green plain with a river under the sun; what should be a regular day for a child repre displaces the enlightenment for shortsighted chimney sweep Tom Dacre. Before the dream ends the apotheosis gives Tom hold of happiness in heaven when he dies if he is a good boy and carries out with his duties. This dream implies a charade to the England church building that was absent before stepd children; moreover it did not even allow chimney sweeps enter the Catholic temples. The angel?s promise would rigorous that the chimneys should accept their fate and check resignation if they want to be in heaven when they die. This is demand not only as a review to perform but also to the catholic religion itself. The fact that Tom awakes from his dream in tincture reflects the gloomy life chimney sweeps undergo. ?And Tom awoke and we rose in the darkAnd got with our bags & our brushes to work.? (21-2)Towards the end of the poem Blake points out the naïve innocence of the chimney sweeps who believed in the angels promise. The children are so innocent that are not able to realize the rib on them. ?Tom was euphoric & warm,So if all do their duty, they extremity not fear harm.

(23-4)The critique goes on through the end of the poem; the Church did not only pretend the chimneys to invite resignation but also be joyful most it. The Chimney Sweeper in Songs of Experience, unlike its counterpart in Songs of Innocence, is well aware of his victim condition; the poetic component is no longer a naïve boy notice a younger chimney sweeper?s dream, but one who describes his own life. He is black by the soot and has no name; he is just a ?little black thing,? in the snow (1) crying ?`weep! ?weep!? in notes of woe!?(8). This image represents the sin committed on him in contrast with the white purity color of the snow. trenchant from the version in Songs of Innocence, this poem does not disguise the lost nature of the young sweeper?s cries. In the relate first stanza Blake points at parents discharge and link it with the church when the boy is asked about his parents. ?They are both gone up to church to pray. Because I was happy upon the heath,And smil?d among the winter snow:(4-6)In ill will of the misery that delineated to be a chimney sweeper, some poor families sent their boys to work in run to have an extra income; the soot covering the chimney sweeps evokes the black habit used in funerals. They clothed me in the clothe of death,And taught me to sing the notes of woe.?(7-8)The child undergoes a slow and miserable death as a chimney sweeper. The irony is explicit since those that are hypothetical to be pious in society spend their responsibilities; those that are supposed to be the guardians of children become the antithesis of security and refuge. through this critique, the poet exposes the untruth of society. With these poems William Blake protested against the living and work conditions, and the overall treatment of young chimney sweeps in the cities of England. In Songs of Innocence, the boy sees his situation through the eyeball of innocence and does not understand the social impairment. In Songs of Experience, the boy is aware of the injustice he suffers and speaks against the establishments that left him where he is. Through his poetry William Blake aimed to subscribe people aware of the distressingness and suffering caused to these children on squall of their innocence. Bibliography:Blake, William. Songs of Innocence and Experience. Ed. José Luis Caramés. Madrid: Cátedra, 1997Bloom, Harold and Lionel Trilling. The Oxford Anthology of slope writings. Ed. Frank Kermode, tail end Hollander, et al. Vol. II. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973Merriman,C.D. ?William Blake Biography?. The Literature Network. 2006 [internet][Ref.2 de Nov. 2008] hypertext transfer protocol://www.online-literature.com/blake/ If you want to get a wide-eyed essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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