The Story of a Chimneysweeper

The poem “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake is set around a dark background of youngster labor. In the 18th and 19th centuries, boys of 4 and five were sold because of their small physical size to operate as chimney sweepers. In this poem, one particular of the characters by the name of Tom Dacre has a dream exactly where an angel rescues the boys from coffins and brings them with him to heaven. The story is told by 1 of the young chimney sweepers whose name remains untold. To assist his readers to comprehend this poem, and to add an even far more dramatic impact, Blake writes the poem in initial particular person. The cause behind the 1st person narration is really simple. Blake wants to aid his readers to feel as if they are the one telling the story. By performing this, the reader can envision what it was like to be the young chimneysweeper who is searching over at his fellow worker, Tom.

Within the first two lines of the poem, readers get a background of the events that will be portrayed in the poem. The narrator’s mother had passed away when he was really young. Stereotypically, in society, the mother has always been the much more caring of the two parents. Had the narrator had a mother, the story might have turned out differently. In the second and third lines of the poem, Blake writes, “And my father sold me whilst yet my tongue could scarcely cry ‘weep! weep! weep!” (Blake 2). The fact that the father had sold the young boy tells us that the boy comes from a poor family members. Otherwise, there would be no cause for the father to sell the boy. Also, the boy is not old enough to voice his own opinion or even talk, meaning that his father already determined his fate. The boy was treated as house rather than as a human getting. In the final line of the first stanza, Blake writes, “So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.” (Blake 4) Other than the title, this line is the 1st line exactly where Blake tells us why the boy had been sold, and what the rest of the poem will be about. The reality that he consists of that the boy will be sleeping in soot, really displays how poor the situations are when being a chimneysweeper.

In the second stanza, the readers are introduced to a new character, named Tom Dacre. Tom is also a young boy, about the same age as the narrator, who also works as a chimneysweeper. The reader only gets a single physical function of Tom described to them: “There’s tiny Tom Dacre, who cried in his head, that curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved” (Blake five). From this a single can collect that as a young boy chimney sweeping, they get their head shaved. Since all the boys get their heads shaven, it is practically like providing them a uniform and taking away their identity. Following this, the unnamed narrator offers Tom words of reassurance saying that the soot from the chimney couldn’t ruin what wasn’t there. This was critical simply because as of this point in the poem, every little thing that had occurred had a dark and depressing tone.

In the next stanza, Tom Dacre has a nightmare. At very first, Tom was quietly sleeping in his bed, when abruptly he has a nightmare. The fact that Tom was quiet at 1st indicates that what the narrator stated could have helped calm him down. The reader may possibly also assume that Tom may possibly have had anxiety when going to sleep thinking about his life as a chimneysweeper. The dream itself consisted of thousands of chimney sweepers getting locked up in coffins of black. Blake decides to name off four of the chimney sweepers, however, all with names that are one particular syllable and have a maximum of four letters. One of the motives that Blake could have accomplished this is to continue to make this topic private. Anytime any individual gives one thing a name, that object now holds a greater which means to that person. In other words, now that there are four named kids in Tom’s dream, Blake is able to make the dream look even darker.

Blake modifications the tone in the subsequent line. “And by came an angel who had a vibrant essential, and he opened the coffins and set them all free” (Blake 13). There was a major contrast in this line from the final. Angels are usually seen wearing all white. This one particular, in certain, was carrying a bright crucial, which unlocked all of the dark coffins. Blake added this adjective to say that the kids have been now totally free from their slave-like jobs. “Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run, and wash in a river, and shine in the sun.” (Blake 15). Blake adjustments this nightmare over to a dream in this stanza. Now Tom Dacre is dreaming of what youngsters his age must be undertaking as an alternative of cleaning out people’s chimneys. Blake also contains that Tom dreams how the boys will be washing in the river. He involves this simply because it is as if Tom feels that as soon as he is free of charge from sweeping, he will be clean. Secondly, Blake contains the boys shining in the sun, which symbolizes brightness and warmth. One can infer that working in a chimney would be the precise opposite of that.

The fifth stanza is nonetheless a continuation of the dream. “Then naked and white, all their bags left behind, they rise upon clouds and sport in the wind” (Blake 17). Being that the boys are naked symbolizes freedom. It shows that they are free of all of their tools and gear that are necessary to chimney sweep. It was also vital that the skin tone of the boys was white. White is the colour of purity and is the opposite of the soot colour inside the chimneys.

In the last portion of the dream, the angel tells Tom that if he is a good boy, he will finish up possessing god as a father and in no way wanting joy. The angel is telling Tom what he needs to do in order to be like the other boys in his dream. This is important now Tom will adhere to all of the directions provided to him by the men and women who run the chimney sweeping organization. The angel tells Tom that he will end up with God as a father. A reader can assume that Tom’s father was possibly the very same as that of the narrator. When Tom at some point does go up to heaven with God, he will never want joy because he will have almost everything that he wants, in contrast to he did when he was with his genuine parents.

In the sixth and final stanza of the poem, the dream ends, and the readers can see a alter in Tom Dacre’s outlook on life, where he utilised to be negative, and now he is constructive. “And so Tom awoke and we rose in the dark, and got without bags and our brushes to function. Although the morning was cold, Tom was satisfied and warm so if all do their duty they require not worry harm.” (Blake 21). This poem is complete of light, and dark contrasts all through and this final stanza is no distinct. The initial line is how Tom arose from his sleep exactly where an angel was speaking to him, into the cold dark morning to set out to operate. It was crucial to include these adjectives due to the fact they brought back the reality that was chimney sweeping. There was also a contrast in the sense that he was dreaming of naked kids operating about, and now he has to awake and grab all of his gear to get to operate. The kids have been free of charge, and now he has physical locks on him with all of his gear. Even although the morning was cold, Tom seemed to be happy and warm. The reader can infer that this is simply because of what the angel had told Tom. He is undertaking all of his duties, so he require not worry harm.