Sunday, June 28, 2009
William Blake: The Chimney Sweeper
William Blake does a great job in exploiting the heinous crime of young boys in The Chimney Sweeper. To be a chimney sweeper, young boys who were sold into the business by their poor parents, fulfilled hazardous jobs. They were the only ones petite enough to perform such tasks as cleaning a chimney and by doing so, in the long run experienced permanent health issues or death. Even though chimney sweepers exist today, the difference with this occupation today and yesterday is having the choice to doing such labor. When young boys were sold into this type of business, they did not have the option of being able to play with friends or working. The young gentlemen begins by introducing us readers to Tom Dacre (line 5, 81), who like him, was young and deprived of a sensible childhood. Young Tom dreamed that one day an Angel said to him that if was a good boy, "He'd have God for his father & never want joy." (81) It's sad that one of his main wants was for an earthly father who will take care of him and give him joy. Since that wasn't fulfilled tangibly, the dream gave him a sense of joy in knowing that one day his request for a father would come true.
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Tisha,
ReplyDeleteTisha,
You do a good job of describing the job of a chimney sweeper for you reader and giving us a good understanding of the perils of the job. You also give an accurate and concise synopsis of the Chimney Sweeper in Songs of Innocence, however I was disappointed to see that you never really analyzed any of the quotes or went into detail about what Blake was really trying to do with this poem. You did state that his dream gave him a sense of joy and hope. I think most people infer that the young boy looks forward to death because he is aware of the fact that he will never have that sort of joy here on earth, do you agree? You should also take a look of the other version of this poem in Songs of Experience and see if there are any comparisons or contrasts.
Tisha,
ReplyDeleteI am not sure why your previous post, on Hemans's "The Wife of Asdrubal," would not allow readers to post a comment. In any case, I did enjoy your exploration and interpretation of the poem, and I thought you did a good job there presenting and discussion textual passages.
In this post, on the other hand, you do not really quote or discuss the poem in sufficient detail or depth. You primarily summarize the poem, and offer a few remarks on it. These remarks, perceptive as they are, are less persuasive because they lack textual support or illustrations, and your reader has a harder time seeing what you mean. Be sure in your paper to handle textual evidence more like you did in your previous post and less like in this one.
Tisha,
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the description, but I had to readed the poem to understand your material. I wised you would have pointed out why this poem was written. Blake was advocate against child labor and used this to inform the public of the injustice that was given to minors and financial burden of parents. I agree that Tom Darce was looking for more love from his father after loosing his mother and the dream gave him hope of one.
The Chimney Sweeper is another one of my favorites. It addresses many social issues, especially, child labor laws. I think William Blake did an awesome job when he wrote this poem. I'm sure his poem excited many people in this era and paved the way to child labor laws.
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