Blog #13: Paired Poems Revision (Chimney Sweeper)

In both poems, The Chimney Sweeper, William Blake talks about chimney sweepers, little children who are forced to clean chimneys endangering their life. A clear social injustice occurring to little children who barely even know what the world has to offer, are forced to clean chimneys. The powerful diction and syntax combine to form a melancholy tone, foretell the social injustice happening to little children in the poems by William Blake. In the second poem Blake builds on the melancholy tone further by using variable syntax structure. In line 2 he says, “Crying “weep, ’weep,” ” represents the actions that the poor little children are doing: crying and weeping at such a job that is a social injustice against them. A binary opposite is used in line 12 where Blake mentions the words heaven and misery. The ironic use of heaven talks about the regrets of living in a society where a small child is not respected and forced to do an unjust job where death is near certain. The two opposites both paint a picture of sadness and despair for the children. Instead of living a life of peace and harmony, they are living a life of misery. The short sentences and the actual dialog by the children give a first hand account on their troublesome lives. Throughout both poems “The Chimney Sweeper” William Blake uses intense diction to paint an image of injustice. The words such as coffins, died, cry used in the poem convey a melancholy tone further criticize the job that the children were forced to use. William Blake in line one says, “When my mother died I was very young”, the children were deprived of a motherly figure and instead of consoling them, people made them clean chimneys where death was very likely. The use of black symbolizes the soot on the children’s hair, which entails from the work they are doing and the coffin symbolizes death of the children. Both combine together to tell the true nature of what is going to happen to the little children. In lines 11 and 12, Blake says, “Dick, Joe, Ned & Jack, were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black”, the use of word coffin and black cements the outcry of children. Seeing your own friend’s die of a job so dangerous, are wondering what will be the fate on themselves. The fact that little children do jobs that are not in their reach, is a terrible injustice to them and the people that do it to them, deserve to be punished. Throughout both poems William Blake uses dark diction and variable syntax to talk about the pains for what the children are facing. Being a sweeper entails certain death. The dark diction builds on the ironic idea that even though they are children they are being treated as adults because they are doing such a dangerous job. The sadness and despair conveyed by Blake on such a horrifying situation paints an image of regret. The melancholy tone future cements the legacy of the little children as long lost, and no hope of returning.