Laura Richstone Essay 1 Rewrite

The Chimney Sweeper is a closed form narrative poem from William Blakes Songs of Innocence and Experience collection. It is composed of three stanzas containing four lines each known as quatrains. Following an iambic tetrameter arrangement, The Chimney Sweeper is written in a question and answer format. The first stanza, which adheres to an AABB rhyme scheme, asks the question; while the second and third stanzas answer the question and conform to a CDCD EFEF rhyme scheme respectively. This shift from question to answer also coincides with a shift in subject position, narration, and time within the poem. Blake utilizes the poems physical structure ( ie the breaks between stanzas one and two) and its texture ( the change in rhyme scheme) to highlight the multiple shifts that occur from the transition from stanzas one to two. Though there is some change within the poems texture, due to its rigid structure, texture, and consistent lineation, The Chimney Sweeper is indicative of a death poem. The feeling of death and consistency within the poem is further highlighted by the fact that the poem goes nowhere. The narrator and the chimney sweep are in the same place in the end of the poem as they are in the beginning of the poem: with the narrator asking a dirty chimney sweeper on the streets of London where his parents are and the child answering. In The Chimney Sweeper Blake utilizes the changes in subject position and perception to encourage the reader to experience the feelings of and identify with the chimney sweeper. Within the first stanza there is an established narrator and subject. However, this immediately changes in the transition from the first to the second stanza. In this transition the third person narrator disappears to be replaced with the chimney sweepers first person narration. This shift to first person narration causes the reader to become the chimney sweeper for the last two stanzas of the poem. The subject position shift is highlighted by the different diction between the first and last stanzas. When the reader is first introduced to the chimney sweeper the child is
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Laura Richstone Essay 1 Rewrite

described as A little black thing among the snow... ( line 1). By using such diction ( ie using thing instead of boy or child) Blake abstracts what and who the chimney sweeper is supposed to be to the reader creating a physical and emotional distance between the two. However, by writing the remaining stanzas in the first person Blake manages to erase some of the distance created in the first stanza. By employing the first person I it becomes unclear if the happiness

spoken of refers to the chimney sweeper or if it refers to the reader of the poem. As such, it seems for that short time that the reader and the chimney sweeper in the poem become one person. The decreased separation between the chimney sweeper and the reader can also be seen in the last line of the poem when Blake uses the inclusive our instead of my, or your, in the line who made up a heaven of our misery. By using the world our it is clear that the reader and the chimney sweeper have connected, and to a certain degree, share the same outlook and feelings of their (ie the chimney sweepers) situation in life. By using the first person I ( lines 5 and 9) and the inclusive our ( line 12) Blake blurs the line between the reader and the chimney sweeper and encourages identification between the reader and the chimney sweeper. The increased affinity between the reader and the plight of the chimney sweeper is further encouraged by the fact that the child and the narrator have no identity. Since the readers do not know who is talking to the child there are no constraints on who or what the narrator is. As such, the reader is more able to project themselves into the position of the narrator and into the poem. In addition, because the identity of the chimney sweeper is also ambiguous ( ie the reader does not know their name, age or gender) the child can become any child. When reading the poem the audience can imagine that the chimney sweeper is their own child, sibling, or relation. Blake uses this lack of identity to help upper middle class citizens to identify and relate to a child ( and a social situation )that they would otherwise turn a blind eye to.
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Laura Richstone Essay 1 Rewrite

Although seemingly simple on the surface Blake uses imagery, tone, and the picture that accompanies the poem to illustrate that The Chimney Sweeper is a poem of experience. Within this poem Blake seems to be fascinated with the contrast between black and white. This is seen in the picture that accompanies the poem and in the imagery of the poem itself. In the poem Blake immediately presents the reader with the contrast between black and white when the narrator describes the chimney sweeper as a little black thing among the snow( line 1). The method of describing the chimney sweeper as contrasted against the snow is also paralleled in the second verse where Blake juxtaposes the image of the child [smiling] among the winters snow (line 6) with him being clothed in the clothes of death( line 7). Blake further underlines this contrast in the picture that accompanies the poem. Within that picture the chimney sweeper is drawn and colored in black against a white simple background. This echo of black and white imagery can be an avenue in which Blake is attempting to convey the two contrary states of the human soul within the poem. On the one hand, in Blakes point of view, children should be and are innocent. However, children like the chimney sweeper in the poem are colored by their experiences in the world. As such, the child described by Blake embodies the two contrary parts of the human soul. The child is painted black by his experiences of the world but at the same time is still somewhat innocent because he has never visited harm upon anyone. Blake further illustrates that The Chimney Sweeper is a poem of experience by the tone of the poem. Within the poem the child is telling the narrator both how he became a chimney sweep and has a distinct tone of disillusionment, cynicism and finally acceptance that he cannot change his situation. The feeling of disillusionment that the child feels towards the world is reflected in the last stanza. It is here that the child describes a God and His priest and King/
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Laura Richstone Essay 1 Rewrite

Who made up a heaven of our misery (line 11-12). In essence the child equates his suffering with the continued welfare and livelihood of the British church and government. From the childs perspective it seems as though the very institutions that are supposed to protect the innocent like himself are actually profiting from their continued suffering. This feeling of entrapment and of being used is further underlined by the illusion to slavery within the last stanza. By stating that because I am happy and dance and sing,/ they think they have done me no injury( line 9-10) the chimney sweeper likens himself to the image slave holders have of their slaves. The owners (ie the government/ society) do not want to actually acknowledge the wrong that they have visted upon the slaves. As such, they convince themselves that the slaves ( ie the poor and ill-used like the chimney sweeper) are actually grateful to have a job/ purpose in life and are thus glad to serve them. As such, the chimney sweeper view his situation in life as something that cannot be altered unless there is a major change in the government or the church structure that does not allow them to profit off of the poor ( which is unlikely to happen). Subsequently, the attitude and tone of the child is one of acceptance t is only by the hard a cheap labor that he, and people like him provide that allow institutions such as the