Chimney Sweepers- Appreciation

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Poem Appreciation

Chimney Sweepers

William Blake

The poem Chimney Sweepers by William Blake is about young, innocent boys who worked as chimney sweepers in the days when the people especially the affluent, used to burn coal at the central heating, to keep them warm in winter. Blake describes the sufferings of the young chimney sweepers and the hope they see only in dreams.

Blake’s diction and effective use of simile, metaphor and images makes the reader appreciate and sympathise with the miserable plight of the young boys and their desperate inner plea for joy and hope.

Line 1 “When my mother died I was very young” brings in a sense of immediacy of sadness as the reader learns about the death of the narrator’s mother when he was very young.

Sold in “And my father sold me while...” line 2 makes the reader think the child turned out to be a commodity which can be sold for money. The narrator was sold to probably to those who employed young boys in the arduous work of clearing the ash and soot of the chimneys.

By repeating ‘weep’ in line 3, Blake makes the reader sympathise with the narrator who was given away for money at a tender age when he could not even express his pain in words. The alliteration in line 4 sweep, and in soot I sleep encapsulates the life of the narrator who could do nothing but endure the drudgery.

While Blake refers to the sufferings and miserable life chimney sweepers in the first second stanzas, and third stanzas, but whereas, in the fourth, fifth and sixth stanzas, he presents how a dream of one of them shows how brighter their lives could turn as an angel appears to salvage them from the hazardous labour.

Blake compares the Tom Darce’s head to the lamb’s back. The simile which likens the young boy’s head to a lamb’s back when he cried as his head was shaved, makes the reader appreciate the innocent fear of childhood.

“Were all of them locked in coffins of black” line 12 conveys the deep set disgust and fear the work led the young chimney fears to. The metaphorical reference of ‘soot’ to ‘black coffins’ tells that the boy might have felt that the deep layer of soot under which the boys slept seemed to mark their end and it with got buried all their aspirations and hopes for a bright future.

From the beginning of fourth stanza, the reader is able to see a perceptible shift in the ideas conveyed. As the first three stanzas convey the sufferings the young chimney bore, stanzas four, five and six dwell on the happy dream which Tom Darce has one night. Words such as bright (line 16) and free (line 17) denote the hope that seems to dawn in the lives of the chimney sweepers in the dream, though.

Blake makes a mention of coffin in line 17 where the ‘coffins’ whose denoted end and evil in line 12, were opened or probably ripped open by the angel to set the young aspiring hearts that were lying lifeless after having gone through untold sufferings.

As the reader visualizes the images in line 19 “Leaping, laughing, they run” he or she appreciates the amount of freedom and joy the young boys experienced after having gone through untold miseries as chimney sweepers. The visual imagery also makes the reader visualize and appreciate the beauty of nature which they do not seem to have experienced before.

Blake heightens the effect of the happiness the young chimney sweepers through powerful images in stanza five. “They rise upon clouds and sport in wind” (line 21), shows young Tom seems to experience uninterrupted happiness and joy in his dream.

Line 23 “Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm” tells the reader that all that toiling young innocent boys crave is a touch of love, care and hope that all will be well. Though it was a dream Tom believes that one day the his life and the lives of others would see light and this belief makes him bear with the miseries his work thrust upon him and move on.

Through vivid images and diction that narrates the hard life and suppressed feelings of joy and hope of chimney sweepers, Blake has left the profound mark of the memory chimney sweeper in the reader’s mind.