Thetwo poems "The Chimney Sweeper" and "London" by William Blake, and the twopoems "Tich Miller" and "Timothy Winters" are all on a theme of childhood,however, they are set in different eras and so childhood should be verydifferent. Discuss this, c...

Authors Avatar

The two poems “The Chimney Sweeper” and “London” by William Blake, and the two poems “Tich Miller” and “Timothy Winters” are all on a theme of childhood, however, they are set in different eras and so childhood should be very different. Discuss this, comparing and contrasting the poems

As a child, William Blake was a loner. He never socialised with other children and sat by himself reading the Bible.

        His family were very religious, but did not agree with organised religion. This meant that they never went to church and did all their worshipping at home.

        Blake was always an outsider and he refused to join in with his brothers and sisters. He had visions of angels and God when he was young and he often thought that this was normal for children of his age. This is shown in “The Chimney Sweeper” when he says, “As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!

        Blake used to walk long distances across the countryside. He saw London grow and develop over the years, and he hated it. Soon the places he used to walk were taken over by “charter’d streets”. He thought the Industrial Revolution ruined people’s lives. He saw, once happy and smiling faces, turn grey and sad.

        At the time, children hardly went to school but were sold or put to work at a very young age. He sees childhood as innocent and thinks that being put to work takes that away from you, making you experienced.

        In his two poems, “The Chimney Sweeper” and “London” he shows childhood as a sad, lonely and hard time in a place where there is industry and no freedom.

        In the poem “London” Blake uses the word “every” a lot

“In every cry of every Man,

In every Infants cry of fear”

This shows that Blake thinks that there is no escape from the sadness that people are feeling.

        The line “Mind-forg’d manacles I hear” gives the impression that everybody is being forced to think the same about issues and that there is a lot of fear amongst the people in London. This line also gives the impression of a prison and people being behind bars. This is because Blake didn’t like authority and believed in free will.

        The poem has a very strong rhythm, this sounds like either the Industrial Revolution or Blake’s’ fist on a table in anger.

        “And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse”

In this last line of the poem, Blake puts two opposing ideas in a sentence. It puts a whole different view on marriage, making it seem like the beginning is the start of the end. Blake sees life in London very depressing; this could be why he thinks that marriage is like death. Living in a place like London could lead to hatred and end up not being, hence, the end of a marriage, a funeral.

Join now!

        Blake is appalled by the cruelty to children that is going on. He mentions “Infants” twice in the poem, both saying that they are crying. “How the youthful Harlot’s curse

Blasts the new born Infants tear”

This shows that there were a lot of unwanted children at the time because of prostitution at a young age. The fact that young girls were on the streets also shows that life was hard because they were not being kept at home, or were sent out to get money for the family, and this was their last resort.

        In the poem “The Chimney ...

This is a preview of the whole essay