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عن قصيدة THE CHIMENY SWEEPER
the poem speaks of irony of situations between what is happening and what would be appropriate to happen . there is a sharp contrast between the actual reality and what should happen the poet drew 2 opposing situations.
William Blake wrote (The Chimney Sweeper) of (Songs of Innocence ) in 1789 . in the next to last line of the first stanza , the cry " weep !weep! weep ! " is the child's attempt at saying " sweep !sweep ! which was the Chimney sweeper's street cry . this poem shows that the children have a very positive outlook on life . They make the best of their lives and do not fear death .
This is quite the opposite in it's companion poem in "Songs of Experience" which was written in 1794 . In this poem, the child blames his parents for putting him in the position he was in . He is miserable in his situation and he also blames " God & his Priest & King " .This point of view is different from that of its companion poem because the chimney sweeper has been influenced by society and has an " experienced " point of view
Poetic Devices :
Blake uses various poetic devices ? including ****phor , repetition , anaphora, metonymy, alliteration , onomatopoeia, and multiple meaning ? to bring his readers into the terrible existence of all chimney sweeper . Blake denies his readers , or his young subjects , a happy ending unless they realize they must ? do their duty ? as given by God . While the poem seems to literally assert that there is hope for sweeps only in heaven , reading for spiritual , symbolic , and moral significance provides multiple
conflicting meanings behind this short poem . The innocent , hopeful narrator , a young sweep , seems to dare his readers to assist in preventing the moral decay of the lower class ' painful existence.
the first stanza introduces the narrator , a young sweep , and the family background which caused his unfortunate , lowly position :
weep ? in the third line holds an IRONIC DOUBLE MEANING: while it could be read literally as the cry of a young child unable to pronounce his ? s,? it also symbolizes the weeping ? or lack thereof ? of the little sweep . thrown into work so young , the sweep may not have realized the horror of his position until just recently . this double meaning stems from the metonymy of a tongue crying : the reader thinks of words as well as tears . Also , the alliteration of the consonant ? s? (sweep ? soot ? sleep ) sound like a brush repetitiously scraping a chimney wall . The dirty sweep cannot avoid condition , even in sleep .
Blake has the sweep address his readers' morality in line four ? your chimneys ? (Italics mine ) ? because they assist in his current ? soot ? filled existence by hiring him to clean their chimneys . through this , Blake places the blame for the social epidemic of sweepers onto his readers for not stopping the cruelty.
Blake's use of the passive ? was shaved ? in line six begs the question , ? who shaved his head ?? he does not give us someone to blame for this taking of innocence. However , it does recollect that Tom's head must be shaved to be a chimney sweeper , and chimney sweepers are present to sweep ? your ? chimneys . The moral guilt Blake wants his readers to feel is also increased in this stanza because the reader can now see Tom , an individual young boy , crying at the loss of his beautiful white hair . They now have a name , and there the reader visualizes one more bare-headed sweep crying and aside from his fellow sweep comfortless.