‘The Chimney Sweeper: A little black thing among the snow’ by William Blake is a
dark poem that sought to expose the horrors of child labor
. In the first lines of ‘The Chimney Sweeper,’ the speaker describes a small “black thing among the snow”. This is of course the child who has lost both his parents.
How does Blake use poetic structure in the chimney sweeper?
Despite the dark subject matter of young boys sweeping out chimneys and dying, the poem’s structure makes the poem feel very lighthearted. The poem is composed of
six quatrains
. Each quatrain contains two couplets, and those line-to-line rhymes are a major reason as to why the poem sounds so light and fun.
Why are these coffins black in the chimney sweeper?
Tom’s dream is supposed to be a glimpse into the afterlife of the chimney sweepers; the coffins of black are
a conventional symbol for death
, and the black ties back to chimney soot. The poem itself has a symbolic meaning: The chimney sweepers symbolize life and its toils, while the soot symbolizes sin.
When was the chimney sweeper a little black thing among the snow written?
Follow the same steps as above to read and analyze Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper: A little black thing among the snow” (written in
1793
).
Why does the chimney sweeper say weep weep weep?
An early example of assonance is in line 4: “So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.” The /ee/ sound chimes with “weep” from the line before,
linking the act of crying to the enforced labor of chimney sweeping
. As a repeated sound, the /ee/ also suggests the way that chimney sweeping is a repetitive task.
How did the angel open the black coffins?
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair. Were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black, And by came
an Angel who had a bright key, And he open’
d the coffins & set them all free.
What do coffins of black symbolize?
“Coffins of black” represents
innocence and what is done to innocent children
.
What is the moral of The Chimney Sweeper?
The theme of “The Chimney Sweeper” is
the cruelty of life and society from the perspective of a child
. As in much of Blake’s more somber poetry, life and society are intermingled. … Tom Dacre and the other children are too good for this cruel world.
What is the main theme of the poem chimney sweeper?
Major Themes in “The Chimney Sweeper”:
Misery, death, and hope
are the major themes of this poem. The poem presents the miseries of children as chimney sweepers and their contentment in life. It is through the mouth of two young speakers the poet conveys his idea that one should not lose hope.
Which stylistic devices can you identify in the poem chimney sweeper?
“The Chimney Sweeper”, a narrative poem by William Blake, uses rhetorical devices to explore the hardships of true salvation through literal and figurative language. The use of
imagery, symbolism, and metaphor
create the tone of misery regarding both the speaker and little Tom Dacre.
What form of poem is The Chimney Sweeper?
The entire
poem
is compound of six stanzas. Each of them is a quatrain, which means that it includes four lines. The rhyme scheme in the
poem
is AABB – CCDD – EEFF – GGHH – IIJJ – KKLL.
What kind of poem is The Chimney Sweeper?
This is called an iamb, and it is the most common foot type in English. “The Chimney Sweeper” contains lots of anapests (Blake really likes these) and lots of iambs, so we might think of this poem as being
a mixture of anapestic and iambic tetrameter
.
Who is the narrator of the chimney sweeper?
The narrator of this story is
a boy, who remains nameless
. Readers learn immediately that this boy’s mother died when he was quite young.
What are the clothes of death in the chimney sweeper?
The “clothes of death” which was the uniform of a Chimney Sweeper which
was an occupation with a high mortality rate
. Representing how they sold him to basically die. His parents believe what? That they have done nothing wrong to him and that it was the right thing for him.
Can scarcely cry?
The phrase “my tongue / Could scarcely cry” is a neat, poetic way of saying “
before I could even cry
.” Blake’s gettin’ all fancy on us. … When he says tongue, he’s really referring to the speaker’s voice (a tongue can’t actually make a sound all on its own).
Which poetic device is used in the line could scarcely cry weep weep weep?
Assonance
: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such as the sound of /ee/ in “Could scarcely cry ” ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!” and the sound of /i/ in “And so he was quiet, & that very night”.
