The drudgery of Work

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“Work can Sometimes Feel Like Drudgery or Slavery” Compare and Contrast the Two Poems in Light of This Statement

Within both The Chimney Sweeper and Miners we see that the poets feel the work being done in unjust to the workers. Being written from a child chimney sweeps voice, The Chimney sweeper manages to highlight the problem with a society which allows children to work in trades such as chimney sweeping and w see this again in Miners, however in the second poem the poet is outraged at a society which allows its youth to go to war.

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        The Chimney Sweeper certainly shows the sweeps trade for the slavery that it truly is. This becomes clear within the first stanza “My Father sold me whilst yet my tongue/ Could scarcely cry “weep!” “weep!” “weep!”” This shows the sheer injustice of the sweeps trade, and the irony of the boy being unable to perform the sweep’s call, so young he can only manage “weep!” displays just how young these boys were.

        Contained within the poem there is also repeated black and white imagery. Firstly with the boy whose head has been shaven “You know that the soot cannot spoil your white ...

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