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William Blake's The Chimney Sweeper in the Songs of Innocence and Experience

A comparison and analysis of William Blake's two poems both entitled "The Chimney Sweeper"- one from his "Songs of Innocence", the other from "Songs of Experience".

Blake understands that the words "innocence" and "experience" seem to completely oppose each other, and he skillfully portrays this contrast. However, a closer examination of the poems from each section reveals that these two perspectives are equally important and inseparable.

Blake's poems present a contradiction between the states of innocence and experience, two phases through which all people must pass. The two sets of poems juxtapose the untainted, naturalistic world of childhood against the adult world of corruption and restraint. Blake does not ally himself completely with one particular view; in fact many of the poems are written in the voice of a separate speaker, thus somewhat disconnecting the poet from his narratives. It is as if Blake hopes to identify the fallacies and flaws of each.

He does not present the two viewpoints with intention to persuade the reader into choosing between them, for Blake believes that no such choice is possible. Rather her decides to simply portray each point of view, infusing his poems with the idea that innocent bliss is not necessarily superior to the anguish of experience.

Blake's Songs of Innocence depict the naiveté that permeates the hopes and fears of young children before they have begun their progression to adulthood. One particular poem that exhibits this is the Innocence version of The Chimney Sweeper. The setting of this poem is 18th century London, where it was quite common to find parents selling their children into apprenticeships as chimney sweeps. It was not unusual to find chimney sweeps as young as four years of age, as such small children could maneuver more easily within a chimney than could an adult.

This poem is written from the perspective of an "innocent"; one of these young chimney sweeps who has yet to lose hope or optimism. Blake uses this uncorrupted boy as the narrative voice, heightening the impression of pure innocence by placing it against the backdrop of depravity. This is put to an effective use, as it becomes agonizingly apparent that there is a great polarity between what the child says and what Blake is implying. The boy says "...my mother died when I was very 0+young./ And my father sold me while yet my tongue/ Could scarcely cry " 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!".

This is actually the child explaining that he was sold into apprenticeship at such a young age that he could not even make the proper sonorant sounds that would allow him to make a street call. The child was actually trying to call out "Sweep! Sweep!" to advertise his trade. However, Blake's implication is that the child had been enslaved before he had become aware of the situation's great injustices. The young chimney sweep was too naive to realize that his painful life was worth weeping over.

This poem, like many of Blake's, is a scathing criticism of an intrinsically flawed society that believes itself to be almost perfect. the poet skillfully places the criticisms in the context of "innocence", making his statements more effective, as well as more heart wrenching. In this poem, Blake utilizes the persona of a small boy, "little Tom Dacre". The poet employs a technique to elevate this boy into an individual. No longer is he just another faceless young chimney sweep; he has been granted a name, feelings, and emotions.

These are traits that would usually go unrecognized by the upper class who are addressed when the young narrator says "So your chimneys I sweep...". However, Blake challenges the practices of this class system which allows for human beings to be treated as nothing more than a means to an end. Little Tom is a metaphorical object that has been personified; an unknown, ill-fated young worker that has been given a voice. By using this character, Blake confronts the ideology of children being exploited as a means of making money with the reality that these people have basic human rights and deserve to be treated respectfully.

Blake expands on his social commentaries to include criticism of both the church and religion. The young narrator of the poem repeats in detail a dream that was had by Tom. In this dream, all of the young chimney sweepers were "lock'd up in coffins of black./ And by came an Angel who had a bright key,/ And he open'd the coffins amp; set them all free". The narrator reads the dream sanguinely, and Tom actually feels a sense of physical warmth after waking from the seemingly serene dream.

However, it is made apparent to the reader that the angel is representative of the repressive society in which these children live. When the angel tells young Tom that "if he'd be a good boy/ He'd have God for his father amp; never want joy", the message seems to be a piously optimistic one. However, it in actuality supports the idea of the poor chimney sweeps pledging conditional and unrelenting responsibility to the upper class, for Tom will see heaven only if he is a "good boy" and finishes his duties.

Similarly, the chimney sweepers see the dream as a sign from God, while the reader can view it as a metaphorical representation if the church. The young boys believe that the church can help them, just as they believe that the dream has benefited them. However, in reality the dream has done virtually nothing for the poor children, as they are still living the same dismal lives of constant repression. Correspondingly, the church does absolutely nothing to relieve the suffering of desperate and ardent believers.

In The Chimney Sweeper from Songs of Experience, Blake presents a world where misery, inhumanity and frailty are presented in a seemingly darker, sadder fashion. Yet the situations illustrated, and the convictions of the author remain the same as in the prior poem. Blake still aims to create a social commentary through his poem, and continues to speak out against the desolate life into which the young chimney sweeps were forced. Interestingly, the only factor that has changed significantly is the perspective of the poem's narrator.

Instead of being related by a very young, innocent boy, this poem is written in the point of view of a more experienced chimney sweep. The hopeful, childishly blind optimism of the speaker in the first poem has vanished in favor of a prevalent sense of morbid despair. For example, in stark contrast to the child's naively mispronounced proclamations in "Innocence", here a more matured sweeper cries "weep, weep, in notes of woe!". These cries are not merely caused by an inability to properly pronounce the word "sweep" as in the first poem, but rather are resultant of a culmination of the hardships and experiences that have led this speaker to maturity.

With his "experienced" chimney sweeper, Blake attempts to create a disturbing portrait which reflects a rabidly harsh point of view. The poet once again uses a common literary device to help build up the appropriate atmosphere. In the poem narrated by the innocent, Blake utilizes personification to give little Tom a distinct voice. Conversely, in this composition, the poet objectifies the child, giving him no name or voice, but rather referring to him only as "A little black thing among the snow". Just as society neglects to view these children as valid members of the civilized culture, Blake does not even acknowledge that the child is human at all.

He is nothing more than a "thing"; a tiny black dot spoiling the pure whiteness of the snow. This dichotomy of black and white imagery can be found in both poems, in a relative sequence. The innocence poem includes the shearing off of Tom's lamb white hair, which could be seen as the beginning of the shedding of childhood innocence. This shedding of naiveté leads then to the chimney sweep to be completely blackened by his breadth of experience as seen in the second poem. The pure white innocence of snow surrounds him, and yet it remains out of his reach; he has been soiled by his hardships and cannot regain what he has lost.

Blake also exhibits how experience can completely change one's perspective, and cause one to become lost and embittered. In this poem of experience, the child seems to blame his parents for putting him in his torturous position. he states "Where are thy father and mother! say!/ They are both gone up to the church to pray". This line is spoken almost venomously, and it is filled with a palpable sense of sarcasm. The boy has become wise enough to realize that he has been abandoned by his parents, as well as by society as a whole, as the "parents" spoken of in the poem could be seen as a societal metaphor.

Blake seems to think it ironic that people who abandon their own children are the same ones who devoutly worship. Blake sees this as a desperate attempt for immoral people to try and prove their worth and save their souls. It is a sad fact that the supposedly virtuous institution would side with the immoral masses, leaving the innocent believers to experience only a slow, painful corruption. While this injustice is portrayed in both poems, it appears more explicit in the second, only because of the perspective of the narrator. While the young children in the innocence poem were blind to the dissolution around them the speaker in the companion poem has found his eyes opened by experience, and has become acrimonious as a result.

It is apparent that Blake intended these poems to be read together, not, however, for the reason of showing the contrast between the disparate worlds of an innocent and one of experience. Blake makes it perfectly clear that they both reside in the same world of corruption. He illustrates, however, that their opposing mental and emotional perspectives cause them to view the world quite differently.

It appears that despite Blake making the experience poem more outspoken, the innocence version is meant to be the more disturbing. The mere idea of a sweet, virtuous boy beginning to become corrupted without even being aware, is actually quite disquieting. With these poems, Blake not only presents the reader with a chilling look at life in a corrupt society, he demonstrates the progression from innocence to experience, two states through which every human must inevitably pass.

Sources:

The Chimney Sweeper from The Songs of Innocence and The Chimney Sweeper from The Songs of Experience, London: William Blake, 1794