In William Blake's two poems, both named The Chimney Sweeper, Blake exemplifies the woeful lives of chimney sweepers by masking the cruel realities the children experience. Both the earlier poem and the later poem remain constant in shedding false hope for the sweepers, however, the time between when the two poems were written alludes to shift from the glorification of a Savior and God, to a rejection of the faith that once provided assurance. In both the first and the second poem, Blake's use of a purposeful diction to create a strict rhyme scheme and lucid imagery written in the ballad form, is all in effort to implicitly depict the Chimney Sweepers changes in ideology over time while still under the same fabricated sense of hope as a survival mechanism.
The ballad form requires a strict rhyme scheme. Blake conscientiously chooses the words he rhymes as emphasis naturally occurs at the end of a line due to the rhyming. The rhymes naturally help the poem flow but also hold importance as most of them hold a connotative meaning. In lines 13-15 of the first poem, Tom, the Chimney Sweeper, envisioned a dream where an "Angel had a bright key and [he] open'd the coffins & set them all free." Freedom is a word that holds much meaning especially when put into context. A key is meant to unlock something, in essence, set something free. It doesn't have to be physical but implies a release or freedom of a subject. The boys were confined in the cramped, sleeping in soot-filled chimneys. And the dream of an Angel, a heavenly figure, letting the boys out of the Chimney which was juxtaposed with a coffin, unveils Tom's where he find safety or comfort– religious figures. The first poem represents The Chimney Sweepers finding hope in a deity which is starkly contradicted in the second poem.
This faith or trust in a religious figure as a safety line is non-existent in the second poem and the Chimney Sweepers have found a new way of coping. In lines 5-8 in second poem, The Chimney Sweepers was "happy upon the heath" while also being clothed in "clothes of death". This happens in a simple a-b-a-b rhyme scheme but holds a negative connotation written in a contrasting conversational mood. The Chimney Sweeper described himself as being "happy" for losing the religion he had once put so much trust in. Heath is matched with the word death. Death is a word that holds much power. It can represent a better option or a honor in terms of battle. In this context, it is shone in a negative light. The Chimney Sweeper was "clothed in death" along with the dark soot of the chimney. He is described as having his fate, death, being decided by not only his parents, but by God who had abandoned him.
However, the meaning of the second poem is hidden behind the conversational tone and the repetition of the the phrase, "I am happy". Saying "I'm happy" is in essence, the same thing as saying "I'm fine" when in reality, nothing is actually fine. While the first poem starts out dark ask the Children are sold into, what could be called, slavery. The second poem starts out in a conversational, relatively positive mood. By the end of the first poem, however, hope is gained with each stanza. Tom wakes with a new hope to survive the darkness of the coffin as he does not need to "fear harm" anymore. While the second poem ends as Blake asserts that the root of the children's misery stemmed from "God & his Priest & King"
As the first poem builds up hope and looks towards a religious figure, the second poem rejects the religion that was supposedly their salvation. The rhymed pairs held connotations that supplied meaning to the stanzas while the stanzas worked to piece together to meaning of the two poems whose purpose was to describe a shift over time in belief.
Reflection:
In class, we were given 40 minutes to read, analyze and write an essay, comparing and contrasting William Blake's two poems both named, The Chimney Sweeper, while also touching base on poetic techniques.
Initially, I was overwhelmed because I didn't know how I was going to answer the prompt correctly. After analyzing and planning, I was able to get going. For me, the most prevalent issue was trying to put my thoughts into understandable sentence. A lot of times I know what I want to say but I don't know how to express it. A lot of times I struggle with finding the perfect vocabulary word that would best get what I'm trying to express across. At the time, I find anxious under the time constraint. I went over 40 minutes and ended up finishing at home. This worries me because I'm afraid I will not be able to write fast enough come the AP test.
Having written an essay regarding poetry once before, I felt like this one went better since I did know more about poetry, how to analyze poetry, and answer the prompts. I would give myself a 4 on this essay. Last time I gave myself a 3. With more practice, I feel like I could further improve my score. I have significantly improved my thinking skills, however, there is more to improve on. The AP exam doesn't just focus on how well you analyze, but how well you write. To get to the 5/6/7 range I must increase the level of my analysis and start writing better. Learning to write comes with practice and I know that I can improve. As a next step, I need to work on decreasing the time it takes for me to write a thesis and analyze. While writing a good thesis is important, writing a good thesis in a shorter amount of time is even more important.
No comments:
Post a Comment