A man who beats to a different drum, and sings to his own tunes. He was admired by William Wordsworth but sounds like he didn't like him much. Blake was a rebel in his day by using his works as a way of voice his opinion about political and social issues.
The poem "The Chimney Sweeper" is one that I enjoyed. William describes a different childhood experience in that children were used as labor to clean chimney sweeps. This was hard labor and in today's society, laws prevent children from working before the age of 14. This is really a form of slavery. Perhaps the white hair is used as a symbol of innocence, as Blake states "You know that soot cannot spoil your white hair". As the reader, I know that the soot did spoil the sweep's "white hair". Even "washing in the river and shining in the sun"does not take away the innocence that has been lost while these children continue to labor as sweepers.
2 comments:
Gloria,
Your posting is better when you focus on a specific text. (The first few sentences here seem a bit random, and don't really start an analytical thread.)
There is plenty to talk about in the two poems called "The Chimney Sweeper," and I would like to see you explore them in more depth. In your subsequent postings, try to dig deeper in your analysis.
I agree with you summary and conclusions about "the chimney sweeper." I thought this poem was sad and one of the deeper poems Blake wrote.
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