The poem the Chimney Sweeper is pointing out the injustices of childhood labor at this point in time, which was around the late 1700's. According to the footnote in the book legislative tried to pass a protective law for the children, but it was never enforced. Since the legislative was attempted to be passed though it must have been a known issue in London at the time while Blake was writing this poem. The interesting thing about the poem is that Tom sees the world through such an innocent light. Even when bad things happen to him, such as getting his head shaved, he looks at it through a positive and innocent light by saying at least my white hair will not be ruined by the soot. Young children cannot stand having their hair cut or shaved, and by him pointing out that his head was shaved helps shed a light on his age. While there is no mention of Tom's age, we can assume he is probably just old enough to walk and talk since he does mention he was barely old enough to weep.
Blake is pointing out here that by parents selling their children to the chimney sweepers he is taking away their innocence and the best thing they can hope for is death. Tom, in the poem is dreaming of the day he will die because even as a child he knows that will be the best day of his life. He knows as soon as he dies and goes to heaven he will have god to take care of him and he will not have to perform those awful tasks anymore. For a young child to have to be put into a situation where they know if they work hard and do the right thing they will be able to go to heaven is intense. I believe Blake was outraged at the fact these children were put into such harsh conditions and he wanted to point out how bad it was for them in this poem.
He also uses white and black alot to make his points in this poem. Everything black is associated with the dirty job of the chimney sweepers. The soot that they sleep in and their naked bodies covered in the black soot. However, when Tom dreams of heaven he dreams of everything being white and clean. He also uses sunlight in the same way to represent happiness because these boys were always in dark, dirty conditions, on top of London already never being very sunny- I know I visited there last week.
It is also interesting how Tom forgets of his own father, but refers to going to heaven and having god as his father. What a terrible thing for a young child to have to know their own father sold them into the awful situation they are in. All of these things take away "childhood" and "innocense" and Blake is making this point in the poem.
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5 comments:
Jenny,
Thanks for getting your blog up and running, with your first post on the readings. I am glad to see you focusing on a single poem by this challenging poet, rather than just generalizing about all of them. I think it is a good idea to look closely at a poem, as you begin to do here, but it is even better to quote and analyze specific passages from a poem, rather than restating them in your own words. Not only do you increase your credibility as a commentator by quoting, but you also avoid the dangers of plagiarism and of misstating the meaning. I also would like you to be aware of the possibility of multiple meanings in the poems--Blake, for instance, often employs irony, which means stating the opposite of what he means.
You are off to a good start, though, and I look forward to reading your next post.
Good job Jenny! I thought you covered the main point of the poem really well! As you very well mentioned: How could they think of "dying" as being such a joyful occasion at such a young age? They should not even "know" what it is. Those were miserable life conditions. I believe this poem also tries to honor those kids, so that we know they have been "martyrs." Also, by letting everyone know about those "chimney sweepers", Blake wants his readers to understand childhood should only be about innocence and happiness. You are doing a great job at contrasting the morose of the situation with the dream or vision Tom had. That illuminates your entry on such a dramatic topic. It otherwise could have become really depressing. Good point at the end about the father/God situation. I have not thought about it beforehand...
Hey Jenny,
Over-all you have a good analysis of Blake's poem. I thought I would point out to you that there are two people in this poem, the speaker (or the I) and Tom.
Tom doesn't put a positive twist on his situation the speaker does. It is the speaker who was sold by his father at a young age and is now trying to help young Tom be optimistic about his situation.
Jenny,
u did great job... this will help for my course work..thank you so much for the explanations.great!!
Compare and contrast between The songs of innocence and The songs of experience by William Blake
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