Chimney_Sweeper_Songs_of_Innocence_and_Experience__William_Blake

William Blake's Chimney Sweeper Songs of Innocence and Experience.Everyone is eventually exposed to various types of experiences that result to different consequences such as the loss of an individual’s innocence. William Blake explores this theory through his poems ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ in both ‘Songs of Innocence’ and ‘Songs of Experience’ as he somewhat protests against the living and working conditions as well as the overall treatment of the young chimney sweeps as at the time many viewed the children as subhuman creatures and not having a place within society. Blake’s poem ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ from ‘Songs of Innocence’ illustrates the life of a young boy who was sold by his father to become a chimney sweeper and lives a harsh life, yet he does not have an understanding of the social injustice he is enduring. An example of this is seen through first person narration in the quote ‘And my father sold me yet my tongue, Could scarcely cry weep weep…’ this quote further supports the fact that the subject is unaware of the injustice placed upon him by his father reflecting the child’s innocence as the persona is convinced that what he is being made to do is ‘normal’ and does not yet realise how immoral it is to place such duties upon a child. The poet’s effective use of alliteration through the line ‘So your chimneys I sweep and in soot I sleep’ gives the audience both a literal image of the boy’s living conditions as well as a metaphorical image showing that whilst he may not sleep in soot he still lives in very poor conditions. The technique of symbolism ‘Were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black’ represents the common death that was surrounded by the chimney sweeps whilst in the chimneys. Through the poetic technique of imagery in the fourth stanza, ‘And by came an Angel who had a bright key, And he open’d the coffins & set them all free’ Blake conveys a peaceful image for the responder of what the boys are longing as the tone of the poem has now become happy and hopeful. Furthermore this quote could also resemble Tom’s desire to go to heaven to be set free and continue his childhood the way a child should. By implementing rhyming couplets throughout the poem it has also further assisted the responder to establish that the speaker is a child as it has given the poem childlike characteristics such as a nursery rhyme. Through Blake’s use of simple sentence structure incorporated with the various poetic techniques it is clear to the audience that he has portrayed innocence through a child’s perspective. The different aspects of each poem address and compliment the opposing aspects of each of the two poems as ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ from Blake’s ‘Songs of Experience’ the speaker understands the injustice present and speaks against the establishments such as the church that left him deserted. This is portrayed through the use of juxtaposition in the first line of the poem, ‘A little black thing among the snow’. The white snow is in grim contrast to the dirty chimney sweep. This also reinforces their displacement and emphasises their abandonment by their family. The effective repetition of ‘weep, weep’ in the first stanza not only recalls the sweeper’s cry in ‘Songs of Innocence’ but also representing him crying from his suffering. Blake’s use of a rhetorical question in the line ‘Where are thy father and mother' Say' They are both gone up to the church to pray’. This quote contradicts the church’s existence by allowing the exploitation of the child, whereas in the ‘Songs of Innocence’ the child was force as a repercussion of his mother’s death. The composer’s successful use of symbolism in the second stanza ‘They clothed me in the clothes of death’ represents the church’s attire in regards to clothing that is expected during a mourning period therefore his parents are clothing him in preparation of his death. To conclude through William Blake implementing the combination of the various poetic techniques it is clear that he has expressed many different ideas about the concept of innocence and experience through his poems ‘The Chimney Sweeper’.