An examination of poetic techniques used, such as rhyme, rhythm, simile, metaphor, personification, allusion, any type f figurative language, etc.
"The Chimney Sweeper"
William Blake
In the poem The Chimney Sweeper, many techniques are used to help the reader understand the poem in a deeper manner than the superficial words that can be read and forgotten.
The main focus of this particular poem is centered around a recounting of the narrator's coworkers, who is also a child's dream. The dream is cryptic in nature but upon further analyzation it becomes apparent that the dream is a dream that brings hope to the seemingly miserable lives of the chimney sweepers. The rhyme, found in couplets serves to reinforce the emotions that the narrator feels, and also how Tom feels and what her perceives to be happening in the dream he has. "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." These couplets act together to form the emotion of the poem, even in this first stanza by introducing the heartache and beginning of the problem, and then developing through a sense of irony and sadness the harsh life that followed the initial selling of the boy into the sweeper business. Back to the dream, it acts as a metaphor that serves as hope to all of the men and children who are in the sweeper business, the times are tough but the dream that Tom has is a sign of better times to come. The angel represents a messenger from God, which opens the doors to their soot filled coffins, freeing them from the turmoil of their current state, giving Tom hope for a better future in the meantime.
"The Chimney Sweeper"
William Blake
In the poem The Chimney Sweeper, many techniques are used to help the reader understand the poem in a deeper manner than the superficial words that can be read and forgotten.
The main focus of this particular poem is centered around a recounting of the narrator's coworkers, who is also a child's dream. The dream is cryptic in nature but upon further analyzation it becomes apparent that the dream is a dream that brings hope to the seemingly miserable lives of the chimney sweepers. The rhyme, found in couplets serves to reinforce the emotions that the narrator feels, and also how Tom feels and what her perceives to be happening in the dream he has. "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." These couplets act together to form the emotion of the poem, even in this first stanza by introducing the heartache and beginning of the problem, and then developing through a sense of irony and sadness the harsh life that followed the initial selling of the boy into the sweeper business. Back to the dream, it acts as a metaphor that serves as hope to all of the men and children who are in the sweeper business, the times are tough but the dream that Tom has is a sign of better times to come. The angel represents a messenger from God, which opens the doors to their soot filled coffins, freeing them from the turmoil of their current state, giving Tom hope for a better future in the meantime.
