Social Criticism in Blake's Chimney Sweeper and Hayden's Monet's Waterlilies

Social Criticism in Blake's Chimney Sweeper and Hayden's Monet's Waterlilies

The late eighteenth century in England children as young as five years of age were bought, sold, and traded into a life that was completely at the mercy of their owner. These were children without a childhood. Almost two hundred years later America followed suit with this behavior as black Americans were forced to sit in the back of buses, use separate facilities, and attend different schools. The corruption of these contrasting societies is vividly depicted in William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" and Robert Hayden's "Monet's Waterlilies", respectively. Both poems offer a clear understanding of how society can negatively shape a being with false stereotypes. Both poets observed how humans were stripped of their civil, social, and personal rights in societies that were flourishing with life. Hayden and Blake were not only poets, but they were also activists. Each wrote about societies that were plagued by ignorance and hypocrisy, which led to the deterioration of human nature.

William Blake had a "sense of social outrage" (Davis 56) that was apparent through much of his poetry. In his 1789 poem "The Chimney Sweeper", Blake criticizes a society in which children are treated as slaves. Sold by their parents at ridiculously young ages to the chimney sweeping organization, these children entered a life of torment and misery. Being forced to work in such tight and dangerous conditions led chimney sweeps to illness, deformities, and finally their death. A twelve year old boy "at the end of his career" (Ackroyd 125) was best described by a social reformer as, "...a cripple on crutches, hardly three feet seven inches in stature...His hair fel...

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...ing history by writing the truth. Hayden and Blake were not in search of personal glory, rather helping create a society that was fair and just for all.

Works Cited

Ackroyd, Peter. Blake. New York: Knof, 1996.

African American Writers. Eds. Valerie Smith, Lea Baechler, A. Walton Litz. New York: African American Writers.

Eds. Valerie Smith, Lea Baechler, A. Walton Litz. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1991.

Blake, William. "The Chimney Sweeper." Literature: Reading, Reacting, and Writing. Eds. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Fortworth: Harcourt, 1997. 763.

Davis, Michael. William Blake: A new kind of man. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.

Hayden, Robert. "Monet's Waterlilies." Literature: Reading, Reacting, and Writing. Eds. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Fortworth: Harcourt, 1997. 723.