| Willaim Blake's The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Innocence) |
[Sep. 3rd, 2006|10:38 pm] |
Ultimately, I'd first like to note I have the most obscure views and opinions you will ever read (maybe not this piece... but soon to come). Enjoy.
We have read a lot this past week yet I keep running back to William Blake's poem, The Chimney Sweeper in Songs of Innocence. I have NEVER understood poems, thus never found joy reading them. However, I find his writings incredibly advanced for his time- maybe even for ours. Not necessarily the events he describes (i.e. chimney sweeping being outdated for 200 years), but more importantly, his philosophy behind government control. Many, many writers have written about such events- for example, George Orwell (author of Animal farm and 1984) wrote pieces about the communist regime. I find both authors very similar. Both completely took current issues of their time and turned them into political literary illustrations.
On another note, the similarities of other authors and Blake do not have anything to do with my analysis of The Chimney Sweeper. The first thing that stands out to me in this poem is the first couple lines. I take it as the narrator was sold into an orphanage at a very young age- before he could even talk ("...while yet my tongue"). Right off the bat, Blake set a very depressed mood for his story. However, as one further reads, he becomes more personal to the reader- particularly writing about specific names (Tom, Dick, Joe, Ned, etc.). I hate to rush my analysis, but the three middle stanzas easily describe the whole poem.
The essential meaning of this poem to me is to overcome. Here, Tom Dacre is upset he must shave his head. However, the narrator tells him to look on the bright side of things to overcome his sadness. Overall, the last stanza generally states if we obey and do our chore, we will protected (I can't quite tell if this is sarcasm or not. If it is, it shows my inexperience with poem review!). |
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