This document provides analysis of William Blake's poems "The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. The first poem depicts a young chimney sweeper recalling his life and a dream of his friend Tom Dacre. It uses imagery of lambs and coffins to represent innocence and danger. The tone is positive and hopeful. The second poem reveals a darker, more mature tone as the poet questions his fate. Imagery of blackness and the clothes of death contrasts with the whiteness of snow. He blames the church and king for covering up the suffering of chimney sweepers. While the first poem is seen as accepting injustice, the second

1. THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER
WILLIAM BLAKE
SONGS OF INNOCENCE (SEEN POEM)
SONGS OF EXPERIENCE (UNSEEN POEM)

2. THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER
SONGS OF INNOCENCE
(SEEN POEM)

3. •dilemma of child laboring
MEANING •A young chimney sweeper recalls his life from a baby growing as
a chimney sweeper
•Also recalls a dream of his fellow chimney sweeper, Tom Dacre
• the characters did not noticed the injustice done towards them
• lamb’s back (line 6)- because a lambs back is white and
IMAGERY not yet been contaminated with dirty colors such as black
• coffins of black (line 12)- portrays the chimney(shaped as
a coffin and black again shows danger),’coffins’ shows the
image of death
• river, sun (line 16)
• Positive-songs of innocence is about the optimistic feeling
TONE •Hope, innocence and optimistic personality- Blake shows that in
life we must have hopes even though there are a lot of challenges
ahead of us
•Num of line-24
STRUCTURE •Num of stanza-6
•Rhyme scheme-aabb- same throughout the poem
because blake’s style of writing is similar as a song
•Alliteration-so your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep”
LANGUAGE (line 4), “as Tom was a sleeping he had such a sight” (line
10).

4. THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER
SONGS OF EXPERIENCE
(UNSEEN POEM)

5. • reveals on the poet questioning about his fate
MEANING •Most of the words used are negative implicating the state of agony and
suffering
• In the final words he blames the church and the king for they have
cover all of the miseries endured by the chimney swepers
•Little black thing(line 1), clothes of death(line 7)
IMAGERY • light and dark- blackened by the cruelty of men and their
sin is contrasted by the whiteness of the snow
• Negative
TONE • a much darker tone than the first poem
•maturity
•More dramatic
•hatred and forced
•Num of line-12
STRUCTURE •Num of stanza-3
•Rhyme scheme- aabb,abab,abab
•Alliteration-“crying”’weep,weep,” in notes of woe!”
LANGUAGE

6. PERSONAL
RESPONSE…

7. THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER
(SONGS OF INNOCENCE) (SONGS OF EXPERIENCE)
SEEN POEM UNSEEN POEM
• DO NOT AGREE •AGREE
• BECAUSE THE POET PORTRAYS THAT • THIS VERSION OF THE CHIMNEY
THE BOYS(THE CHIMNEY SWEEPERS) SWEEPER SHOWS A MORE MATURE
ARE JUST ACCEPTING THEIR FATE EXPRESSIONS
LIVING IN INJUSTICE • THE THOUGHT OF THE PARENTS
•THE FATHER ALSO BEARS TO SOLD HIS LEAVING THE CHILD TO GO TO CHURCH
OWN CHILD FOR MONEY AND PUTS SHOWS THAT THE PARENTS ARE THE
THE CHILD’S ENTIRE LIFE IN SOOT AND ONES TO BLAME
DIRT OF SLAVERY • THE POET ALSO SHOWS THE HATRED
TOWARDS THE CHURCH AND KING
WHO PRETENDS THAT EVERYTHING IS
FINE AND FOR CLOSING THEIR EYES TO
“OUR MISERY ”