The Chimney Sweeper And William Blake Analysis

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William Blake’s poems “The Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Innocence written in 1789 and “The Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Experience written in 1794 are two poems about Tom Dacre, a young chimneysweeper. Blake wrote these poems during the Romantic Period, which influenced the themes in his work like religion, poverty in London and child labor, which were all prevalent matters at the time. Despite the poems having many similarities, the tone each poem was written in gained different sympathies from the reader through the two different perspectives each poem was written from.
During the Romantic Period from 1785-1832, when Blake wrote these poems, child labor and slavery was common. In both poems, poverty was conveyed, in Songs of Innocence, Blake described, “So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep” which signified his loss of innocence. However, Blake’s message in Songs of Experience conveyed to the reader that chimney sweeping was a dangerous profession and lead to early death, “They clothed me in the clothes of death.” …show more content…

The optimistic tone from Songs of Innocence is distinctively different to the cynical tone of Songs of Experience; it is almost like they were both written to tell a story when read together about a once wide-eyed hard worker who grew to become a resentful chimney sweeper. Both poems use the same “‘Weep! ‘Weep!” quote, in varying ways. Songs of Innocence is written about when Tom was just sold “while yet my tongue could scarcely cry…” and Songs of Experience wrote “Crying…” as if he had been a slave for a while and could weep based on experience of being

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