The_Chimney_Sweeper

The Chimney Sweeper William Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper is a striking representation of life in England in the late 1700s. The main theme of this poem is lost childhood innocence. This poem deals with the abusive treatment of children when they were sold by their parents to work in dangerous conditions as chimney sweepers . This poem reflects the author’s views on England’s lack of compassion, all while displaying a tone of religious relief to children put into these awful circumstances. Blake uses many literary elements including the explanation of thematic issues, visual and rhythmic structure, sound devices, and figures of speech to help the reader develop a clear understanding of The Chimney Sweeper. The Chimney Sweeper is a narrative poem that tells the story of young Tom Dacre. There is no defined setting to this poem. The speaker is a coworker of Tom’s who takes care of him, and is also young enough to be in the same position as him . The story explains that Tom’s mother died and his father sold him to become a chimney sweeper at a very young age. The speaker narrates to the reader Tom’s story while stanza, poem, ibid, line, chimney, first, words, sweeper, last, each, tom’s, tom, sound, rhyme, weep, reader, because, visual, story, present, lines, imagery, blake, young, two, stanzas, second, repetition, one, couplet, assonance, work, third, speech