William Blake

 

 

William Blake

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POETRY QUESTION

The poems below, published in 1789 and 1794, were written by William Blake in response to the condition of chimney sweeps. Usually small children, sweeps were forced inside chimneys to clean their interiors. Read the two poems carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, compare and contrast the two poems, taking into consideration the poetic techniques Blake uses in each.
Activity 6: Analyzing the Scoring Guide
As you examine the Scoring Guide, underline or highlight key words in each description.
9-8 These essays offer a persuasive comparison/contrast of the two poems and present an insightful analysis of the relationship between them. Although the students offer a range of interpretations and choose to emphasize different poetic techniques, these essays provide convincing readings of both poems and demonstrate consistent and effective control over the elements of composition in language appropriate to the analysis of poetry . Their textual references are apt and specific. Though they may not be error-free, these essays are perceptive in their analysis and demonstrate writing that is clear and sophisticated, and, in the case of a 9 essay, especially persuasive.
7-6 These competent essays offer a reasonable comparison/contrast of the two poems and an effective analysis of the relationship between them. They are less thorough or less precise in their discussion of the themes and techniques, and their analysis of the relationship between the two poems is less convincing. These essays demonstrate the student’s ability to express ideas clearly with references to the text, although they do not exhibit the same level of effective writing as the 9-8 essays. While essays scored 7-6 are generally well written, those scored a 7 demonstrate more sophistication in both substance and style.
5 These essays may respond to the assigned task with a plausible reading of the two poems and their relationship, but they may be superficial in analysis of theme and technique. They often rely on paraphrase, but paraphrase that contains some analysis, implicit or explicit. Their comparison/contrast of the relationship between the two poems may be vague, formulaic, or inadequately supported by references to the texts. There may be minor misinterpretations of one or both poems. These students demonstrate control of language but the writing may be marred by surface errors. These essays are not as well conceived, organized, or developed as 7-6 essays.
4-3 These lower-half essays fail to offer an adequate analysis of the two poems. The analysis may be partial, unconvincing, irrelevant, or may ignore one of the poems completely. Evidence from the poems may be slight or misconstrued, or the essays may rely on paraphrase only. The writing often demonstrates a lack of control over the conventions of composition: inadequate development of ideas, accumulation of errors, or a focus that is unclear, inconsistent, or repetitive. Essays scored a 3 may contain significant misreadings and/or demonstrate inept writing.
2-1 These essays compound the weaknesses of the essays in the 4-3 range. Although some attempt has been made to respond to the prompt, the students’ assertions are presented with little clarity, organization, or support from the poems themselves. The essays may contain serious errors in grammar and mechanics. These essays may offer a complete misreading or be unacceptably brief. Essays scored a 1 contain little coherent discussion of the poems.
Activity 7: Sample Scores
(Small Group Activity)
With a partner, read and discuss the sample essays. Then discuss your evaluations with the entire group.
The following essay received a score of “4.” What has the student done well in this essay? What are the weaknesses?
SAMPLE ONE
The two poems by William Blake entitled “The Chimney Sweeper,” may seem very much alike at first glance, but in truth the tone of the poet is different. Each poem begins in a similar way with the small child, the chimney sweeper, crying “’weep, ’weep.” This phrase, while meant to show that the child has a lisp, are clearly strategically placed by the poet to indicate the words that the chimney sweeper really would like to say. The poems are different, finally, because of the hopeful tone at the end of the first, and the hopeless tone at the end of the second.
Both poems’ focus is God. In the first poem the chimney sweeper has a dream of going to heaven, and is told that he will be allowed into heaven “. . .if he’d be a good boy,” (19) This then inspires the boy to live the way of God, and he is no longer unhappy in life because he has the promise of a better life if he lives the way of God.
In the second poem, God also plays a central role, but with a much darker context. The poem says that while the chimney sweeper works his parents are off praying at church. The purpose of this poem is to highlight the hypocracy of the boy’s parent’s actions. The parents are away at church, living the way of God on the surface, but they have sold their son off to work at a likely fatal job.
Although God is the common theme of the two poems, the context is very different for each. In the first poem God gives the boy hope and inspires him to carry on. In the second, the boy’s parents worshipping God as their son slaves away at his work is used to show the hypocracy of those parents who sell their children off to be chimney sweepers. Both poems are written in iambic pentameter, but each has a unique tone, the first is the hope which God provides, the second is the hopelessness that the boy’s parents have taken away.
The following essay received a score of “6.” What has this student writer done well in responding to the prompt? What could be improved upon?
SAMPLE TWO
Throughout the history of literature, poetry has served as a means of expressing discomfort of those facing social injustice and cruelty. Fueled by the poor conditions of eighteenth century chimney sweepers, usually young children, William Blake was such a poet who wrote about this social tragedy of his time. In two of his poems, both named “The Chimney Sweeper”, he uses several different poetic techniques, including aspects of diction and syntax, as well as opposing ideas about God and religion to show the mistreatment of these young chimney sweeps.
Throughout both poems, diction is used to express the poet’s bewilderment over the circumstance’s society has allowed these young chimney sweeps to fall into. In both, an informal tone establishes a connection between the reader and the probably uneducated chimney sweeps. In both poems, moreover, the connotations associated between light and dark and black and white are used extensively. In the first poem, this can be seen in the line, “You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.” This, in itself, is used perhaps to reflect the innocence of the boy’s “white hair” and his effort to not allow it to be tarnished by the dark-colored “soot”. Further along in the first poem, the phrase “coffins of black” enhances the idea that these children are being affected and may establish a metaphor to the black chimneys the children must crawl into. Thus, their everyday job of entering chimneys may be seen as a metaphor for their own death. Even further within the first poem, the phrases “shine in the sun” and “naked & white” help to enforce the concept of their innocence through this color connotation. This is in contrast to the phrase “we rose in the dark” used later in the poem. Similarly, the second poem uses this same idea. The first line, “A little black thing amoung the snow” also helps to establish the “blackening” or corrupting of the child, brought out by the snow. Altogether, these poems use this diction technique to further the idea of the suffering of the children.
Syntax is also used to enhance Blake’s plea for the young chimney sweep. While the first poem uses an “AABB” rhyme scheme throughout the piece, the second poem diverges into an “ABAB” rhyme scheme for the second and third stanzas. This flow and rhyme in both forms helps to move along the reader to understand the lives of these suffering. This difference in syntax helps to also reflect a difference shown by the poet in his interpretation of religion.
In each poem, God is shown to have a different relationship to the young chimney sweeps. While God can be seen as a protector over the children in the first poem, with the line, “So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.” In contrast, the second poem establishes God as the creator of their suffering and, thus, creates a much different tone. While their parents have “gone up to the church to pray”, it is clear that it is “God & his Priest & King” that create “misery” for the children. Overall, these two different view points make each poem unique.
Through diction, syntax, and Godly imagery, William Blake creates a feeling of empathy between the reader and the chimney sweeps. With poets such as Blake expressing their disapproval of these conditions, many politicians took note and different laws were established to help fight child labor. Today, society must see the importance of such activism in poetry and other forms of art in order to make twenty-first century life better and void of the many problems society faces today.
The following sample received the score of “8.” Identify the ways in which the student writer addresses the prompt. What other qualities of college-level writing does this essay display?
SAMPLE THREE
The Chimney Sweeper pair of poems is part of a series by Blake which present dichotomous descriptions of the same subject matter; it is matter; i.e. a cynical perspective versus a more innocent, victimized one. This pair comprise a caustic social criticism of the conditions in 18th century London. The first of the two features the point of view of an unnamed chimney sweep & is consequently less thersitical in its approach to the chimney sweeper injustice. Poem two is far more direct, & does not hesitate to censure the iniquities of the system, whether they be societal, political, or religious. Thus the pair are similar in their syntactic approach—they both consist of quatrains, mostly with rhyming couplets. They differ in the voice of the speaker & the explicitness of their condemnation.
These two poems are comparably stylistically as they both deal quite directly with chimney sweepers. They both appeal to our sense of justice & sentimentality, particularly with the unabashedly sentimental “’weep! ’weep! ’weep! ’weep!” line which occurs in both within the first three lines. There is a compact AABB rhyme scheme throughout all of poem 1. This persists into stanza 1 of poem 2, which segues into a similar ABAB rhyme pattern for the last two stanzas. There is also an imperfect iambic pentameter, which averages in at around 10 syllables per line. Both poems make use of dialogue, such as in lines 7-8 of poem 1, with “Hush Tom! never mind it. . .” & lines 3-4 of poem 2 with “Where are thy father & mother? say?” There is also an abundant use of the ampersand (&) symbol throughout each poem. This likely serves to diminish the pretense of the medium, & to show readers that he has working class sensibilities, in contrast to the aristocratic tastes of many of his contemporaries. And, significantly, though the voice of the two poems may differ, the fundamental point of view does not.
There are a good deal of differences between these two poems. Most noticeable is the difference in tone. Poem 1 has a single youthful protagonist whose perspective is reflected throughout. this protagonist introduces us to the plight of his fellow chimney sweep Tom Dacre, who objects to having his head shaved. This protagonist introduces us to the figurative language of the “coffins of black” (line 12) & “Angel who had a bright key” (line 13) which metaphorically illustrate the anguish of these underage workers. Of course, the dream ends in a comforting thought—frolicking on a pure plain in the sun— & the two could continue with their unpleasant tasks. The second poem could be no more direct. Blake does not pull any punches here, & instead tells us the truth as he sees it, with very little in the way of poetic conceit. In a short 3 stanzas, Blake criticizes the church, which attempts to hide these conditions, & the political establishment, which takes money & reinvests none of it into the working class. Blake has here constructed a potent, though contrasting, set of criticisms of the social standards of his day, almost directly encouraging his readers to attempt to change them.

 

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William Blake

With the rise of the romantic movement came a new approach to literature and art.  Rather than appeal to the past for models, rules, and subject matter, the goal now was to be original.  Originality in art as a general goal comes into existence now.  Until now, very few had striven for such originality.  Blake mined the past, but he did so to bring material together in a new way, to create his own mythology.  "I must Create a System or be enslaved by another Man's."
The Romantic era is more open to the mythic, mystic, and spiritual than the Enlightenment had been.  The Enlightenment tended toward the rational & natural and away from the supernatural.  Its religion was deism - the idea that God set up the universe & then let it run without further interference.  Thomas Jefferson, for example, had a New Testemant in which he scratched through all the supernatural events.
With the Romantic era, we see literature again dealing with the supernatural.  Romantics might choose from any number of mythological perspectives; what they had in common was the desire to use these various approaches as ways of experiencing life.  This does not mean that the Romantics necessarily thought such myths were objectively real - they were subjectively real.  Such attitudes still exist.  For example, some of the fans of Star Trek or Star Wars see them as providing valid modes of existence.  They don't have to believe that Yoda and Mr. Spock are objectively real to find them subjectively appealing.
Blake's mythology incorporates much from the Christian tradition - both from the Bible and from such writers as Spenser, Milton & Shakespeare.  Blake's mythology starts with the Universal Man in Eden who falls, not away from God but away from himself.  It is a fall into division & alienation.  Below Eden are three lower stages.

1. Eden.  Perfect union
2. Beulah.  A happy place of innocence.  No experience of "contraries."  Pastoral setting.
3. Generation.  The realm of normal human experience, suffering, & clashing contraries.
4. Ulro.  Hell.  Bleak rationality, tyrrany, static negation, and isolated Selfhood.

Blake published Songs of Innocence in 1789.  In 1794 he added poems to the work and published it as Songs of Innocence and of Experience, reflecting his conclusion that it was not possible to live a totally innocent life.
The images above show how Blake intended these poems to be read.  He etched the words & drawings into copper plates, printed them, and hand painted each one.
At first glance, these poems seem to fall into traditional Christian moral dualism (the idea of good vs evil, God vs Satan, etc.).  But both innocence and experience are elements of the Universal Man that have become alienated from each other.  Each needs the other to be complete, which is more like the Taoist yin & yang (female & male.  passive & active. dark & light, etc.) than the Christian God versus Satan.

• Innocence is meek & gentle, but it is also passive & weak.
• Experience is harsh & terrifying, but it is also strong & energetic.

"The Lamb" (p. 1289) and "The Tyger" (p. 1296)

Blake employs the image of the lamb, an ancient symbol of gentleness and humility, contrasting it with the tyger stalking its prey.  The lamb, with "wooly bright" clothing, plays in the pastoral setting of stream, mead, and vales. The stream, mead (meadow, pasture) and vales are images we see in Psalm 23, a likely source for Blake.
Psalm 23
1
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Blake sanitizes "the valley of the shadow of death" into "Making all the vales rejoice!"  There is no such valley in Beulah, the pastoral world.  With innocence portrayed this way, no wonder Blake considered experience to be necessary.
The second stanza answers the question of the first stanza.  The Lamb who made the lamb is obviously Jesus.  The tradition of seeing Jesus as a lamb goes back to the New Testament, where Jesus becomes the Passover Lamb.  "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1: 29).  Blake makes Jesus the representative of innocence:
He is meek & he is mild.
He became a little child;
Blake portrays Jesus' goodness as meek, mild, & weak (little children don't have adult strength), almost as goody-goody rather than good.
"We are called by his name."  Children are sometimes called little lambs.  Blake could be referring to the speaker's status as a Christian
"The Tyger" contrasts sharply with "The Lamb."  The lamb is innocent.  To the tyger, it's also delicious.
If we compare the meters of the 2 poems, "The Lamb" follows a regular pattern.  The first two and last two lines of each stanza have 6 syllables (1-2, 9-10, 10-11, 19-20).  The middle six lines in each stanza have 7 syllables per line (3-8, 13-18).  The effect of the meter gives us the feeling of a lamb skipping through the fields.
"The Tyger" follows a less regular pattern.  Most lines have 7 syllables, but some have eight (4, 10, 11, 18, 20, 24), and one line has only 7 syllables (6).  The rhythms and sounds of the poem evoke the predator tiger rather than the innocent lamb.
If the lamb was "wooly bright," the tyger is "burning bright."  It's time in night.  It is active rather than passive, hard rather than soft.  The opening question of each poem is similar - where did you come from?  But the tone of each is different.  What god COULD create the "fearful" (frightening) tyger (4)?  What god DARES do so (24)?
If the lamb was created by the Lamb of God, who created the Tyger?

• Did he who made the Lamb make thee? (20)

Are the lamb & tyger manifestations of the same divinity?  Perhaps, but the imagery is as different for the creators as for the creatures.  The tyger has been put together in the underworld and is a creature of the night.  These are the tools of the tyger's creator:

• fire
• sinews
• hammer
• chain
• furnace
• anvil

These are the tools of the blacksmith.  Thus Blake has modeled the tyger's creator on the ancient god Vulcan/Hephaestus, the blacksmith of the gods who worked inside a volcano making Zeus' thunderbolts.
 

"The Garden of Love" (p. 1297)

In some of our reading, we have come across the idea of sex without guilt, remorse, or bad consequences.  Paradise Lost and "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" are 2 examples.
What is it that makes sex fall from this paradisal condition?  According to orthodox theology, it was the fall of Adam & Eve.  Sex is now part of our sinful fallen nature & must be circumsized with rules to keep it from becoming destructive.
For Blake in this poem, it is the prohibition itself that makes sex guilty.  To borrow from a NRA bumper sticker, "When sex is outlawed, only outlaws will have sex."
He goes to the Garden of Love but finds that his earlier Eden has undergone the fall & is now a chapel.
This chapel has "Thou shalt not" written over the door.  It is defined by its prohibitions, especially the one against adultery.
Priests busily bind his "joys & desires" with "briars."  They turn something fun into something painful. What is in the churchyard?  A cemetary. Graves (death) have replaced the flowers (life) that were once here.
 

"Infant Joy" (p. 1299) and "Infant Sorrow" (p. 1299)

Blake contrasts innocence in the newborn with experience.  Even when we are first born, we bear the marks of alienation and contraries.
In the first poem, the infant gives itself the name Joy.  The smiling baby inspires the adult to sing.  The joy spreads.
In the second poem, the sorrow also spreads.  The baby is born with its mother groaning from the birth-pangs and with the father weeping.  The baby is "piping loud; / Like a fiend hid in a cloud."  Unhappy babies can cry and disrupt those around them.  This baby struggles against its father, against its swadling clothes, and sulks upon its mother's breast.  Even food doesn't make it happy.  Could this be the same infant?
 

"To Tirzah" (p. 1300)

Tirzah was the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Jerusalem of the Southern Kingdom.  Blake uses Jerusalem to symbolize spiritual generation & immortality, Tirzah to symbolize material generation & mortality.
Blake treats life in the body as difficult, mortal, and sorrowful.  Jesus died to release us from this life, from which Blake accordingly turns away.  There is an ancient idea that the body is a prison for the soul that Blake seems to follow here.
 

"The Divine Image" (p. 1291)
The Human Abstract" (p. 1298) 
"A Divine Image" (p. 1299)

"The Human Abstract" shows that the innocent, "good" human emotions and actions have roots in the world of experience.  We would not need pity if there were no poor, etc.  Peace comes from mutual fear (As in the Cold War, where their atom bombs kept us from launching ours & vice versa).  God may dwell in us, but so does Deceit.
"A Divine Image" contrasts with "The Divine Image" point by point.
 

	"The Divine"	"A Divine": Traits	"A Divine": Source
Heart	mercy	cruelty	hungry Gorge
Face	pity	jealousy	Furnace seal'd
Dress	peace	secrecy	forged iron
Human form	love	terror	fiery Forge

 
 
 

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William Blake

 

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William Blake