“All of them in coffins of black…an angel…opened the coffins and set them all free”, the coffins of black suggest that by fulfilling their tasks as chimney sweeps the children are going to their eventual death from suffocating or some other form of detath in the dark, smoky chimneys.
With language like this Blake managed to portray his beliefs without going against the Church or the State directly. This meant that although he was criticised he could look at both sides of the lives of children without being accused of being single minded or patronising.
In “The Chimney Sweeper” from Innocence the narrator is the chimney sweep himself; this is an effective method because Blake can then use the child’s lack of knowledge to show hope and a good lifestyle. In Experience Blake uses a child again, this time because of the strong emotional nature of a young child who is miserable but ultimately thinks he is doing the right thing by pleasing his parents.
“And because I am happy and dance and sing they think they have done me no injury.”
In “The Nurse’s Songs” the nurse holds a very different opinion in each poem and this affects the way she sees the children in the poems. In “The Nurse’s Songs” from Innocence the nurse is a caring lady who responsibly looks after the children. In Experience the poem begins to show Blake’s true opinions on dominating females aiming to destroy mens’ personalities. Blake uses Experience to convey his harsher opinions on society and this is contrast by what he feels people think in Innocence.
In “The Nurse’s Songs” from both Innocence and Experience the narratore is the nurse; she desribes the children as both “my children”. This is showing her good nature and kindenss in the poem from Innocence because she sees the children as her own and loves them like a mother. In contrast to this in Experience she sees the children as her own because she doesn’t want to let go of them and wishes that they would live the same miserable life as she has done.
“Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down…and your winter and night in disguise.”
Shows that she wishes her pain and emotional suffering on the children and want to keep them as “my children” so that she can forever treat them as children and not allow them their independence.
In “Holy Thursday” the beadles are portrayed as as “cold and ususrous”, by showing the Beadles in this way Blake is further attacking the state and church and the social injustices of poverty and charity.
Blake uses figurative language to effect in this poem especially to show a harsher or lighter description of characters, situations and places.
“With wands a white as snow” is an example of the figurative language Blake uses to describe the beadles as pure characters in “Holy Thursday” from Innocence.
Also from the same poem Blake’s simile “Now like a mighty wind” is used to suggest that the walking orphans have a natural, powerful presence.
In “Holy Thursday” from both Innocence and Experience the narrator is a spectator on Holy Thursday, the day of the year that orphan children are paraded through the streets in bright colours as soldiers. Blake uses this viewpoint so that a neutral opinion can be gained of both a sinister viewpoint of the parade and a gratuitous viewpoint.
“With wands as white as snow,” show the beadles as pure and leading the children in a good cause but in Experience the beadles are shown in a different manner.
“Fed with a cold and usurous hand?” showing the beadles cruelty and content to be selfish and treat the children as objects not human beings.
The poem I like best of all six is “The chimney Sweeper from Experience because it takes the misuse of chilren in a bad situation and describes it in an even darker manner.
“They clothed me in the clothes of death”, the childs knowledge is invaluable that he knows of his inevitable detah even though he is only a young child.
