Poetry Comparison Essay

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In the late 1700’s, numerous young children were forced to clean the inside of chimneys, which was called the chimney sweeps which would then cause young children to have an early death. William Blake wrote two poems about this issue; both called The Chimney Sweeper in response to the condition of children sweeping chimneys. Blake’s first poem was published in 1789 while the second poem was published in 1794. However, there are many similarities and differences between these two poems as well. William Blake uses several poetic techniques, such as having similar meanings for the poems, using repetition, anaphora, alliteration, a metaphor, a simile, and onomatopoeia to help the reader see the similarities and the differences between these two …show more content…

In the first poem, the author uses alliteration in a dream, stating how the adolescents are “leaping” and “laughing.” This alliteration could indicate that the children are finally pleased with their life. Blake also uses the same onomatopoeia, “weep” in both of these poems to help indicate that the children are looking for work and are upset about sweeping chimneys. Although the author uses onomatopoeias in both poems he does not use any alliteration in the second poem like he did in the primary one. He also uses repetition in both poems by repeating the word “and” multiple times. However, the author repeats “and” more often in the first poem than he does in the second poem. Furthermore, the author uses anaphora in the second poem by repeating “Because I was happy…” in lines 5 and 9 to suggest that just because the author states he is pleased does not mean that he is actually …show more content…

In the first poem, the boy’s mother dies and his father sold him to do work in the chimneys while in the second poem the parents go to church to pray while their child sweeps chimneys. The primary poem has more hope and joy than the second one since the boy has a dream about heaven, God, and angels to where the boy hopes for a better life. However, the secondary poem contains more misery than the first one since the boy’s parents think that they are doing something good for their son and think their son is content but he is actually, truly miserable and has a great deal of sadness. However, in both poems the children know they are going to die since the first poem states in line 12 “…Were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black…” and in the second poem in line 7 stating “…They clothed me in the clothes of death…” indicating they knew that they were going to die young. The author also uses a different rhyming in both poems. In the first poem, the rhyming pattern is “AABB” while the second poem’s rhyming pattern is “ABAB.” Conversely, the author shows in the last stanza of the first poem that Tom no longer dreads his job while the last stanza in the second poem states how the upper class praises “God & his Priest & King,” when that is only ruining the lives of children and making them live in misery. Therefore,

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