The Chimney Sweeper: Songs of Innocence

Question 1

Summarize who William Blake essentially was

Answer 1

William Blake was a 19th century writer and artist regarded as a seminal figure of the Romantic age

Question 2

The Chimney Sweeper basics- who, what, when etc.?

Answer 2

William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience contain parallel poems that contrast innocence and experience. Two such poems that share the name “The Chimney Sweeper” both depict a young boy working the deadly job of a chimney sweeper but in startingly different ways.

Question 3

When was the poem published?

Answer 3

1789

Question 4

When and where is the poem set?

Answer 4

London, during the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s

Question 5

How does Blake both feel about and depict London in this poem, and others?

Answer 5

Full of pollution, corruption, and poverty

Question 6

How does Blake contrast dreams with reality using setting, including quotes?

Answer 6

• Poem starts and ends with hardship and misery (though there is hope at the end)
• Stanzas 3-5 set in Tom Dacres imagination; portray his longing for a more free and joyful childhood with imagery of green fields, clean rivers and a divine ride “upon clouds”
• However, the poem takes place in an industrialized urban landscape- we are reminded at the end that the above ^ was all an illusion – that the boys will only leave London “in coffins of black”

Question 7

Who is the speaker? Provide some context

Answer 7

A young chimney sweeper. The poem opens with autobiographical information (regarding his mothers’ death and being sold into labor by his father)

Question 8

What does Blake’s use of voice suggest?

Answer 8

He provokes a sense of naivety to the speaker’s perspective, suggesting the way that childhood innocence can be exploited

Question 9

What does the poem consist of in terms of form?

Answer 9

Six quatrains, or four-line stanzas

Question 10

Discuss Blake’s use of form throughout the poem

Answer 10

The simplicity and regularity of the form supports the discussion of childhood – almost as if it’s a nursery rhyme. The poem flows easily and mimics the voice of a child

Question 11

Identify each stanza and BRIEFLY summarize (just to help remember the poem)

Answer 11

First stanza: speaker introduction to the misery/hardship of chimney sweeping

Second stanza:Tom Dacre’s arrive, followed by the shaving of his head

3rd/4th/5th: Tom Dacre’s dream of “green plains” and rivers etc.

Final stanza: Situated after the dream, with Tom and the speaker setting off for work the next day