Full Title: An analytic comparison of “The Chimney Sweeper” poems by William Blake

Whilst writing his second series of poems “Songs of Experience”, Blake included several reflections of poems which were a part of his “Songs of Innocence”. These poems often used exactly the same title and commonly made use of similar phrases. This is the case with the two poems entitled “The Chimney Sweeper”. The two sides of the story, innocence and experience bear many differences in their presentation of the chimney sweeper’s views and attitudes and also in the way Blake has portrayed each of them.

The longer of the two poems is from Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” and opens with the child-like voice of the chimney sweeper. Blake has once again adopted a child-like persona, as with many other of his poems in this series, for example “Infant Joy” and “The Little Black Boy”. The first words of the poem seem to contradict its categorisation as innocent, mentioning a mother’s death; we instantly feel sympathetic of whoever the narrator is. The second line reinforces this feeling as we learn the child was sold by his father when very young. In what seems to be a paradox, the parents of the sweeper in the experience song are still alive, but have gone “to the church to pray”. This seems to be a better circumstance at this point in the poem, even if the child does seem to have been abandoned. However, the experience version begins by describing the boy as “A little black thing”, dehumanising him completely. The fact that he stands “among the snow” is a great contrast to his appearance. The snow is also symbolic of bleakness and death surrounding the child and possibly also the cold, uncaring world in which he lives.

An interesting similarity between the two poems is the use of the spoken words “‘weep! ‘weep!”. In the context of the time this was the cry of the chimney sweeper’s trade. However, it also bears connotations to weeping or crying. This is emphasised in both poems, in experience through saying “in notes of woe” and in innocence through “Could scarcely cry”. This links the poor situation of the boy between the two contradictory states of the human soul, innocence and experience.

In the second stanza of the innocence version, further links to its nature are created. The use of a real name “Tom Dacre”, a device rarely used by Blake, establishes a more personal relationship between the sweeper and the reader. Once again a feeling of pity is created as we learn that Tom’s hair “That curl’d like a lamb’s… was shav’d”. The lamb in this line is a symbol Blake uses for pure innocence, showing Tom to be a pure, if not divine child. The divine quality of the lamb is presented in Blake’s poem “The Lamb”. The narrator comforts Tom, commenting that “soot cannot spoil your white hair”. This presents a further link to the experience version, through the use of the colour white. Here however, it can be taken to symbolise purity and divinity rather than the cold harsh conditions of its counterpart.

The next three stanzas of the innocence poem describe the dream or vision had by Tom whilst he was asleep. At first he sees “thousands of sweepers.. locked up in coffins of black”. Again, this does not seem to fit with Blake’s usual style for innocence poems. However, the “locked” coffins of “black” reinforce the feeling of doom and entrapment in this line. This also suggests that these shackles have been imposed on the dead by the organised religion of the time. This contrasts with the “bright key” the angel uses to unlock the coffins. Suddenly the innocent nature of the poem becomes more apparent, through the use of an angel. Whilst Blake tends to display figures of organised religion in a negative way, the angel has always been a symbol of innocence in his poems, a guardian figure. This idea is shown by the way it sets all of the children free from death. The pastoral ‘heaven’, also shown in “The Lamb” with the words “By the stream and o’er the mead”, a common image in Blake’s poetry, is again presented in “The Chimney Sweeper”. Words from the last lines of this stanza: “down a green plain… wash in a river and shine in the Sun” show this heavenly scene.

The final stanza of this dream-like episode describes the freed sweepers as “naked & white”, again linking to the ideas of not only purity but also the bible, in which Adam and Eve are unashamed to be without clothes before their fall from grace. This reinforces the core theme of innocence. The angel then speaks directly to Tom, explaining that providing he is good, he would “have God for his father & never want joy.” This is a great idea for a parentless child to look forward to, even though this happy thought may only come true in death. This darker idea underlies the poem, echoing the ideas of religion that whatever hardships you face now, everything will be better in death. The final line of the poem also hints at this idea of “if all do their duty, they need not fear harm”.

The final two stanzas of “The Chimney Sweeper” (Experience) bear no such allusion to a ‘happy ending’. Because the child seems “happy upon the heath” his parents clothed him in “clothes of death” and taught him to “sing in notes of woe”. There is much symbolism and suggestion in these two lines. The child’s happiness could be mistaken for him just making the best of a bad situation among “the winter’s snow”. The clothes of death also paint a bleak image, seeming to doom the child to death even at such a young age. The mention of singing is another broad theme of Blake’s, linking to the name of his collections, the “Songs of Innocence and Experience”. Song was very important to Blake and in this case the song of the child is in “notes of woe”, reflecting their earlier mention in the cry of the chimney sweeper. This emphasises the idea that the clothes of death are the clothes of a chimney sweeper, and the notes of woe are the cry of their trade. The line “They think they have done me no injury” seems very bitter and sarcastic. The child is reflecting on his maltreatment and goes on to blame all organised controlling powers “Priest & King” for the “heaven of our misery.” This line denounces those in charge for building their power structure and their own “heaven” from the misery of the poor chimney sweepers. The juxtaposition of “heaven” and “misery” is a sour one which epitomises Blake’s techniques of the experience theme.

In conclusion, Blake has portrayed two very different ideas by describing the situation of a chimney sweeper. Both versions agree that the life of the child on the Earth is dismal and unfulfilling, in a cruel and uncharitable world, portrayed through Blake’s use of symbolism. His song of experience points a blaming finger at authority for the sorry state the poor are in, a dangerous move at the time; whereas in his song of innocence, Blake suggests that there is a life after death which will make up for the chimney sweeper’s hardship, encouraging him to stay positive.

_{Mark achieved: 17/20}

_{Teacher’s comments: Very good, sound essay. Although more reference to other poems could have been used, e.g. “London”.}