In William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, many

In William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, many

of the poems correlate in numerous aspects. For example, The Chimney

Sweeper is a key poem in both collections that portrays the soul of

a child

The Chimney Sweeper in Innocence vs. The Chimney Sweeper in Experience

In William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, many of

the poems correlate in numerous aspects. For example, The Chimney

Sweeper is a key poem in both collections that portrays the soul of a

child with both a naïve and experienced persona. Blake uses the

aspects of religion, light versus dark imagery, and the usage of the

chimney sweeper itself to convey the similarities and differences of

the figure in both poems.

The Chimney Sweeper is an excellent example of how William Blake

incorporated religion into his poetic works. In Songs of Experience,

the speaker states that “thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and

Jack, were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black.” These lines

are describing the main character Tom Dacre’s dream during the night.

Many of the innocent young boys that labored as chimney sweepers were

killed in the dangerous profession and potential death was always a

concern. After Tom’s dream was documented in the poem, an Angel

appeared possessing a “bright key” and “he open’d the coffins and set

them all free.” The Angel with the bright key to free all of the

deceased juvenile boys portrays the innocence and purity of the

chimney sweepers. In addition, the Angel also told Tom that “if he’d

be a good boy, He’d have God for his father and never want joy.”

These incidents bring into play the Christian idea that no matter how

death came about or how impure the Earth may be, everything...

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...k thing” among the snow conveys

that the chimney sweepers still possess their innocence despite the

evil darkness of their surroundings. The remaining innocence is a

similarity between the two poems, yet the experience of the latter

chimney sweep supersedes the experience of the former chimney sweep.

In conclusion, the reasoning behind William Blake’s usage of the

chimney sweep in itself is clear. The innocence of a young child is

an idea that every person can easily relate to and sympathize with.

The naïve young boy can easily contrast with a youth that has

experienced the devastation of the surroundings, although the

innocence of the young chimney sweep would also mature into awareness

eventually. Blake’s usage of religion, light versus dark imagery, and

the figure of the chimney sweep illustrate the ideas of innocence

versus experience wonderfully.