Chimney Sweeper Essay

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The Chimney Sweeper “The Chimney Sweeper” is one the most interesting poems that has been written over time. The poem contains alternating iambic pentameter and iambic pentameter lines. This poem is an excellent example of life in England during late 17th century. It can be said that the rhyme scheme of this poem is unusual but still very unique. “The Chimney Sweeper” is one of William Blake’s most famous poems overflowing with literary elements such as symbolism, imagery, metaphors and connotations. This poem contains six stanzas with four lines each and therefore, known as quatrains. Each stanza can be identified with a different theme about the Chimney Sweeper. The images of sweeper’s current conditions are explained in the first stanza where a young child was forced to become a Chimney Sweeper. When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry “weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!” So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep (lines 1-4). The first two lines of the stanza states that in Tom’s early days, his mother died and his father sold him to become a Chimney Sweeper. His life circled around work, calling through the street for more work and at night sleeping on the soot. The stanza ends with the thought that if the child performs all his duties as a chimney sweeper, then God may place him back with his family (line4). Patel 2 The second stanza introduces the main character of the poem, Tom Dacre who joins the other sweepers. When Tom cries about getting his head shaved, the speaker comforts him with a beautiful thought of the situation. "Hush, Tom! never mind it, for, when your head's bare, You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair." The above lines state that the shaved head will only do good to him. Further more, he explains that the soot cannot spoil his white hair. These words of the speaker

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