William Blake Research Paper

The cruel child laboring of sweeping chimneys in the late 1700s stirred many emotions through William Blake’s poetic work. His two poems both named, The Chimney Sweeper, expressed a creative perspective on children sweeping chimneys. Both the first and second poems contained similar poetic techniques to convey a similar meaning, but also contrasted in poetic techniques to portray different perspectives of children who were forced to endure the risky job. Both poems compare in similar poetic techniques such as sound-alike words in different stanzas. For example, the words “dark” and “work” in lines 21-22 and the words “warm” and “harm” in the last two lines are almost rhyming to catch the reader’s attention to that stanza. The words “dark and “work”

In the second poem, William Blake chooses the words “heath” and “death” in lines 5 and 7 to contrast the warm of a fireplace with death to highlight the misery of the child as well as a possible early death. Another comparison between William Blake’s two poems is the repetition used in the two works. For instance, in the first poem the word “and” begins numerous lines throughout the poem. The author does this to build on the importance of the chimney sweeper learning that there is hope beyond this difficult life. Similarly, the second poem repeats a phrase to highlight its importance. The phrase, “Notes of woe” is repeated to explain that the chimney sweeper was not only sorrowful because of his job, but also that his parents failed to understand his difficulty. Both poems also compare because they have similar metaphors. In the first poem, lines 5 and 6 says, “Who cried when his head that’d curl’d like a lambs back, was shav’d.” This metaphor compares Tom Dacre’s head to a lamb’s back. The reasoning for the comparison is because a lamb is symbolized as pure and the child is to be conveyed as innocent. Also, the lamb being “shav’d” was symbolic of the