Daisy Wangmay 6, 2007

Daisy WangMay 6, 2007

Mrs. TravisEnglish 12 AP

People often say that children are a blessing from above. Clean, soft and cute, kids can bring joy to others with their naiveté and innocence. It seems positively sinful to make kids work day-in and day-out in the dirt. But this is what happened in the late 1700’s, when the industrial revolution was at large. Children were perfect for squeezing into tight spaces to fix machines and fetch things. Something that children were used for all the time was sweeping chimneys. As one could imagine, this is a horrid occupation. They were forced inside with their brushes to clean the inside, and usually in terrible working conditions. Poet William Blake wrote two different poems in response to the condition of chimney sweeps. These identically titled poems are written with very different tones of voice, giving the reader two very different point of views.

In the first poem, Blake tells the story of little Tom Dacre, a young chimney sweep. The narrator is also a young chimney sweep, whose father sold him into the business before he “could scarcely cry, “’weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!” The little boy Tom was also innocent and young, his curly hair had to be shaved off so that it wouldn’t get all sooty. And the story goes that although he cried for his lost hair, the narrator reassured him that it was better this way. He went on to dream that evening that all of the little chimney sweeps died and were freed into heaven by an Angel. Then they were set free into their wildest dreams: “down a green plain, leaping, laughing they [ran], and wash in a river and shine in the Sun; then naked and white, all their bags left behind, they rise upon clouds and sport in the wind. And the angel told tom, if he’d be a good boy, he’d have God for his father and never want joy.” After this wonderful dream, Blake tells us that little Tom wakes up happy and warm, even though the “morning was cold” and dark. He realizes that if he continues to be a good little boy and do all his work, then one day he too will go to heaven and be happy. This poem is one of inspiration, giving a feeling of hope to the readers. After reading this, we feel that maybe little chimney sweeps are ok after all. They don’t need as much sympathy because they can be reassured that they’re going to heaven. Even though the beginning of the story is a bit dark, and then the inner light breaks out and spreads warmth throughout the tale. In this sense, the poem is almost like a nursery tale. This is the kind of story that you tell to little chimney sweep children, so that they wont be as upset. Perhaps this isn’t the most effective way of voicing your concerns about kids, if that is what Blake intended to do. That is probably why he decided to revise…

In this second poem, the tone changes completely. While his first poem is rather light and fairy tale like, his second poem is sarcastic and depressing. There is no real reference that the story is about a child; the only subject is “A little black thing.” The way that we come to find out that it is a child is that the “little black thing” is asked where his mother and father have gone. And the thing answer that, he looked “happy” on the barren emptiness, so they clothed him in death, and taught to “sing the notes of woe.” Obviously, this is not something that parents should do, and Blake brings the point on so much more forcibly because he sets up all of those juxtapositions. Singing woe, warm clothes of death, smiling in the cold winter snow… What pierces the most is the first two lines of the last stanza. “And because I am happy, and dance and sing, they think they have done me no injury.” First of all, it is pretty much impossible that a poor little creature would be dancing and singing if he were forced to sweep chimneys everyday. Second of all, Blake is trying to tell us that it was the parents’ fault that these kids are in the soot. They leave them to suffer and they go on to “praise God… who make up a heaven of our misery.” Blake here is also targeting all of the people who merely go to pray for these kids. Blake is saying, why pray to a God who can’t stop this injustice? Praise Him who fills his “heavens” with the souls of little chimney sweeps? Rather, we should take action and try to help these children. With this real downer of a piece, Blake drives the point home, whereas he had failed to do so with his earlier poem.

Although the future of these children is largely unknown from the details of these poems, both are enough to give us a taste of what their perils and emotions were like. Blake does a good job in capturing the mindset of a little child with his words, so now parents all over the world (or at least those who have read this poem) will know not to sell their children into the chimney sweep industry.