Response
In "The Chimney Sweeper," William Blake illustrates the life of a chimney sweep in paired poems. Although the first poem depicts a trustful, innocent chimney sweep's view of his life, the second displays a learned and disillusioned view. Blake uses a shift in rhyme scheme, allusions to religion, and descriptive diction to depict the morbid reality of life as a chimney sweep and suggest the children's rejection of their assigned fate.
In the first poem, the rhyme scheme is aabb. This rhyme scheme is repeated in the second poem, but not entirely. In the second third of the second poem, the rhyme scheme shifts to abab. This shift in rhyme scheme creates a distinction between the two poems, allowing the readers to separate them. The first poem describes an innocent view of the chimney sweep, and so does the first stanza of the second poem. However, when the rhyme scheme shifts, so does the author's perspective towards chimney sweeping. The lines with abab rhyme scheme present a disillusioned view of being a chimney sweep; before, the reader "need not fear harm" (24), but in the abab rhyme scheme, the reader believes "they have done me...injury" (10). This second, experienced outlook on the chimney sweeps is further emphasized through the use of allusions to religion in the poem.
Blake depicts the main character's disillusionment with chimney sweeps through the role of religion in each poem. In the first poem, the character's innocence is revealed through the death of the other chimney sweeps. Blake introduces an Angel who opens the coffins of the dead children and sets "them all free" (14). The Angel also tells a child, Tom, that if he is an obedient chimney sweep, "he'd have God for his father" (20). In both of these lines, it is obvious that the innocent chimney sweeps view their jobs as means to achieving salvation, or being rewarded by God. This suggests a trust toward the higher authority in their lives. Their belief towards the role of religion is drastically different in the second poem. Written five years later, the second poem illustrates an angry, more hateful child. The main character refers to God and religion as making "up a heaven of our misery" (12). This perspective is drastically different because it suggests a negative connotation towards their faith. In the first poem, God and Heaven are the reward, whereas in the second poem, God and Heaven are instead looked at with misery and anger.
The child's disillusionment in the second poem is emphasized with Blake's choice of words. In the first poem, words have a positive, innocent connotation; the children, although dead, are "free" and his friend, Tom, is "happy & warm" (23). Although the characters are in a terrible situation, they do not realize it, instead believing that "they need not fear harm" (24). Blake's choice of these words suggests that the characters are very innocent, because they do not understand their predicament. In the second poem, however, the words have a darker connotation. The children are taught to cry "in notes of woe" and are clothed in "clothes of death (7-8). They point out that although on the outside they mirror themselves in the first poem--appearing "happy" and dancing and singing--on the inside, they are filled with misery and vengeance. The children say that their parents "think they have done me no injury" (10). This reveals the complexity in the disillusionment of the children; although they appear unaffected and happy on the outside, they have become filled with dark misery on the inside. Blake's writing of these two poems depicts the change in the chimney sweeps as they grow up.
Although both poems are centered upon the subject of chimney sweeping, they present two drastically different outlooks. The first poem is naive, illustrating an innocent perspective towards the death and difficulty of chimney sweeping through consistent rhyme scheme, allusions to religion, and diction with positive connotation. In the second poem, on the other hand, the shift in rhyme scheme and negative connotation of religion and the words used reflect a darker perspective towards chimney sweep, revealing the reality of the childrens' lives as chimney sweeps. Blake's poems are binary contrasts, the first representing innocence and trust towards God, and the second representing a disillusioned perspective that is more hateful, and negative. Still, the final lines of the second poem reflect a different view. Although the first is mostly innocent and the second is mostly experienced, the end of the second poem suggests organized innocence. The second poem retells the difficulties in being a chimney sweep. However, the final stanza, "they think they have done me no injury" suggests that the children are not only coming to terms with the reality of their life, but identifying those who are responsible for their situation. By acknowledging that their parents placed them in the situation, they begin to look at not only chimney sweeping, but their parents, with disdain. This suggests that the children feel more than simply innocence or disillusionment; their organized innocence suggests that they are prepared to rebel against their predicament.
Reflection
We were given two paired essays written by William Blake about chimney sweeps and forty minutes to analyze them and write a response to the prompt. I was able to annotate the essay somewhat, but I still had little ideas surrounding how to write my paper, so I discussed its diction, rhyme scheme, and allusions to God/religion. Like the 6 essay, I talked about rhyme scheme and the two sweeps' differing relationship with God. I think the analysis of both of these topics were probably deeper than in the benchmark essays, but they still were not entirely clear. Like the 4 essay, I failed to acknowledge the irony/complexity in the final line of the first poem, "So if they all do their duty, they need not fear harm." This essay is similar to the lower scoring essays in that it lacks complexity; on the other hand, it is similar to the higher scoring essays because the analysis goes into great detail. For this reason, I would give my essay a 5. I think that the essay does a good job of identifying the techniques in both poems; it uses element-by-element organization, making it easy to understand. Also, contrasts words like "however" and "although" were utilized in the process to make the contrast between the two pieces easier. However, this analysis lacks complexity on multiple levels; I missed the irony and I failed to compare the poems, focusing strongly on the "contrast" aspect. In retrospect, I should have studied the devices in poetry more, specifically how rhyme schemes contribute to the analysis of the poem. In order to do better next time, I would like to review how text-by-text organization can be used in a compare and contrast essay, so I know how to write both styles of analysis.
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