What is the message of the poem The Chimney Sweeper?

Major Themes in “The Chimney Sweeper”: Misery, death, and hope are the major themes of this poem. The poem presents the miseries of children as chimney sweepers and their contentment in life. It is through the mouth of two young speakers the poet conveys his idea that one should not lose hope.

How is The Chimney Sweeper a romantic poem?

William Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper and Romanticism This poem brings into question the moral capacities in the late 1700s when children were sold into labor. The language Blake uses, as well as the imagery of God and the child all represent ideas formed in the Romantic Era.

Are there two chimney sweeper poems?

Songs of Innocence and of Experience contains two poems about young chimney sweepers: one in ‘Innocence’ and one in ‘Experience’. Dr Linda Freedman considers how this allows for a complex, subtle engagement with the figure of the sweep.

What does The Chimney Sweeper symbolize in the poem London?

‘ In the third verse Tom dreams of other chimney sweepers being locked up in ‘coffins of black’ which is symbolic of the lives that the sweepers lived, being poor outcasts in a society while having stained unwashed skin and often disfigured bodies.

What is the question asked to the sweeper in The Chimney Sweeper?

Why are they ‘naked and white’? What could be the ‘bags’ they leave behind? Answer: ‘They’ in these lines are the chimney sweepers whom Tom saw in his dream. They are ‘naked and white’ because they have been set free from their miserable lives by an angel.

What is the tone of the poem The Chimney Sweeper?

The tone is one of bitterness rather than pathos. It is ironic that the child is rather ‘adult’ in his acceptance of his parents’ behaviour, compared to the ‘innocent’ surprise of the poem’s speaker.

What kind of poem is The Chimney Sweeper?

The entire poem is compound of six stanzas. Each of them is a quatrain, which means that it includes four lines. The rhyme scheme in the poem is AABB – CCDD – EEFF – GGHH – IIJJ – KKLL. As William Blake was also a musician, he takes care and puts special emphasis on the intonation, metrical foot and rhyme.

Why is William Blake known as a romantic poet?

Blake’s use of images, symbols, metaphors and revolutionary spirit combined with simple diction and spontaneous expression of thoughts and emotions make him a typical romantic poet.

What is the irony in the poem The Chimney Sweeper?

The thing that Tom Dacre believes is the last irony of this poem. The Angel tells Tom that if be a good boy, God will be his father and he will always be happy. Driven by his dream, Tom believes that everything will be fine if do his job properly. This is clearly an irony.

How would you paraphrase the last two lines of the second poem The Chimney Sweeper?

“the chimney sweeper” (songs of experience): How would you paraphrase the last two lines of the second poem? The last two lines of the second poem show that his parents are worshiping the system that put him to work.

How do the two versions of The Chimney Sweeper represent innocence and experience?

Instead, it depicts a child whose innocence was stolen and replaced with experience. His loss of innocence is caused by the church, the government, and his parents. Both versions of “The Chimney Sweeper” show the destruction of childlike hope and thus a loss of innocence through the imagery and rhyme schemes.

Why did the narrator’s father sell him to be a chimney sweeper?

They were sold by their parents when they were young. They had to work in the dark sooty chimneys and they would be covered in soot. And since their hair would become covered with soot, their heads would be shaved. So, these were The Chimney Sweeper Questions & Answers.