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The 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.

 

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,

That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved; so I said,

'Hush, Tom! never mind it, for, when your head's bare,

You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.'

 

And so he was quiet, and that very night,

As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight! -

That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,

Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.

 

And by came an angel, who had a bright key,

And he opened the coffins, and set them all free;

Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing, they run

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.

 

And so Tom awoke, and we rose in the dark,

And got with our bags and our brushes to work.

Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm:

So, if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.

 

1. Who is speaking? Why did he become a chimney sweep?

2. Why did Tom Dacre cry?

3. How did narrator console Tom?

4. What was Tom's dream?

5. The sweeper is basically a slave, doing dirty and dangerous work. Does the sweeper see anything wrong with his situation?

6. From the point of view of 'experience' what is wrong with the sweeper's way of consoling Tom?

7. The last line of the poem is probably something the sweeper heard from some adult. What adult do you think would have said such a thing to these little children workers?

8. This poem has a satirical element. What or who is being satirised? Innocence, or those who exploit innocence? Do you think it is effective?

 

 

(from “Songs of Experience”)

The Chimney-Sweeper

 

A little black thing among the snow,

Crying! 'weep! weep! in notes of woe!

'Where are thy father and mother? Say!' –

'They are both gone up to the church to pray.

 

'Because I was happy upon the heath,

And smiled among the winter's snow,

They clothed me in the clothes of death,

And taught me to sing the notes of woe.

 

'And because I am happy and dance and sing,

They think they have done me no injury,

And are gone to praise God and His priest and king,

Who made up a heaven of our misery.'

 

 

1. Where are the chimney sweeper's parents?

2. Why do his parents think that they have not hurt him?

3. Who is responsible for the chimney sweeper's situation?

4. In the poem The Chimney Sweeper from the Songs of Innocence there are two lines which seem to originate from the mouths of adults. Has Blake identified these adults in this poem?

5. In the The Chimney Sweeper from the Songs of Innocence we are given an explanation of how it is possible for the chimney sweepers to be happy. How do the chimney sweeper's parents interpret this happiness?



Songs of Innocence

Nurse's Song

 

When voices of children are heard on the green,

And laughing is heard on the hill,

My heart is at rest within my breast,

And everything else is still.

'Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down,

And the dews of night arise;

Come, come, leave off play, and let us away,

Till the morning appears in the skies.'

 

'No, no, let us play, for it is yet day,

And we cannot go to sleep;

Besides, in the sky the little birds fly,

And the hills are all covered with sheep.'

'Well, well, go and play till the light fades away,

And then go home to bed.'

The little ones leaped, and shouted, and laughed,

And all the hills echoed.

 

1. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?

2. There are many examples of repetition and internal rhyme within the poem. Find examples and explain their purpose.

3. What do you notice about: • the number of syllables................................

• the number of stresses........... • the relationship between the two? ...........

4. Who describes and narrates what takes place in the poem?

5. What do the children want to do? How do they justify their wishes?

6. What does the narrator of the poem want them to do? How does the narrator react to their protests?

7. What do you think Blake is suggesting in this poem?

 


Date: 2015-12-17; view: 803


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