William Blake's Chimney Sweeper

William Blake’s two poems “The Chimney Sweeper” in his books “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience” are centered on young children lives as chimney sweeps and the difficulties that come of the job, especially at such a young age. The poems are told from two different viewpoints, as the books titles suggest, one from ‘Experience’ and one from ‘Innocence.’ William Blake uses poetic imagery to convey the idea of the chimney sweep to the reader as well as using particular symbols to further convey his ideas. Blake also placed each poem in the respective books either of ‘Innocence’ or ‘Experience.’ Blake’s use literary imagery to engage the reader’s imagination to grasp his idea of the story. In “Chimney Sweep I,” the first line states “A little black thing among the snow” (CSI line 1). This imagery produces a visual of contrast. The bright, stark color of white snow again this little black thing, that we later determine is perhaps a child, covered in soot. This image you create in your mind is a little child, all black covered in soot, laying in the cold, possibly abundant amount of snow. Following this line Blake explains that the juvenile is ‘crying’ and is also missing his mother and father. Next, the author states “…among the winter’s snow, / They clothed me in the clothes of death,” (6-7). This imagery continues on with the idea of the contrast of black and white, but also adds in the element of death. In “Chimney Sweep II,” the poem beings with “When my mother died I was very young,” (CSII line 1) which leaves the reader with an eerie, gloomy feeling to start the poem off. This gives the reader the sense that the young child is alone without a mother, but they are telling the story later on in life. Continuing on with the young aspect Blake writes, “Could scarcely cry “ ‘weep! … / So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep” (3-4). This imagery provides the reader with an interpretation that, again, we are reading about a youth, one that possibly