In the experience version of ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ it isn’t as personal as in the innocence version because, where as in that version the boy had a name, in this version the boy is just described metaphorically as ‘a little black thing among the snow.” The idea of him being ‘black’ is most likely because he is covered in soot from the chimneys which again shows how bad the conditions were. Also, the snow could be symbolic of the cold-heartedness of the people that have employed the child and his parents for selling him. In this experience version Blake puts a lot of blame on the parents for causing the child the misery of working as a chimney sweep. The boy explains why they sold him in the second stanza, ‘because I was happy upon the heath, and smil’d among the winter’s snow.’ This suggests that the parent’s were jealous of their son’s happiness so they sold him off when they didn’t actually need the money. A metaphor used to describe the doom the sweepers faced when they sold is used as well, ‘they clothed me in the clothes of death.’ I think Blake uses this to emphasize the danger of the job to the children, as it tells the reader that there was a high chance of them dying and that eventually killed most of the children. Later in the poem the boy explains that his parents don’t see what they have done to him, ‘and because I am happy and dance and sing, they think they have done me no injury.’ This shows that Blake thinks the parents are naïve and self-serving because they can’t see that their child is being hurt by the chimney sweeping. It also shows the youthfulness of the child because he is still happy and playful like a child. Blake is again critical of the church of England in this poem and shows he believes the parents use it as an excuse to mistreat their son when he says, ‘gone to praise God and his Priest and King, who make up a heaven of our misery.’ Here I think Blake is trying to show the reader the hypocrisy that he sees in the church of England because the parents are praying at church whilst they have abandoned their son to chimney sweeping. And he has twisted the idea of heaven, which is thought to be a good place, to a miserable one. This poem shows that the child has experience because he doesn’t have the false hope of the child in the innocence version and he sees the church of England as how Blake feels it actually is. It is similar to the innocence version in that both show the misery and pain the chimney sweeping causes the children and Blake shows the reader in both that he feels the parents and partially the church of England are partly to blame for it. Another thing that appears in both is a lot of symbols and metaphors that are used by Blake to emphasize the points he is trying to make and to give the reader a better picture of what the children are experiencing.
I have already spoken of how Blake is critical of religion, especially the Church of England and this is shown more clearly in the innocence and experience versions of ‘Holy Thursday’. In the innocence poem a crowd of children are entering St. Paul’s Cathedral to sing praise. In the experience poem the speaker talks about the misery and poverty he sees the children and people in general experiencing around him. In the innocence poem Blake shows the reader that the church of England is quite hypocritical because, at the end of the poem, it says, ‘beneath them sit the aged man, wise guardians of the poor.’ This shows sarcasm because Blake doesn’t actually feel they are wise and he is trying to show the reader that the church is being hypocritical because the old men are getting praise and thanks from the children when actually they are doing a bad job and making the children miserable. Also in this poem Blake suggests that religion is too strict towards the children as he says they were, ‘sitting in companies,’ which sounds kind of like a regiment of the army and it also says they were, ‘walking two and two,’ which could be a link to Noah’s Ark and might suggest that Blake feels they are being herded in like animals and religion doesn’t give them the opportunity to be independent and free. Blake’s views on religion are shown to be very similar in the experience poem as he starts the poem with a rhetorical question that asks the reader if the treatment of children by religion is right, ‘Is this a holy thing to see in a rich and fruitful land, babes reduced to misery, fed with cold and usurious hand?’ Here Blake wants the reader to see that that it isn’t right and ‘holy’ for the children to be upset in England which is one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world. The use of the word ‘holy’ shows that he is blaming religion for this misery the children suffer and the fact that religion allows the ‘beadles’ that were spoken of in the last poem and the people that care for the children to make a profit out of them by getting them to do work in exchange for food. In contrast to this another of Blake’s poems called ‘The Little Vagabond’ tells a child’s view of the church and he explains that he wants to go to church, but would prefer it if it was more like an ale house, ‘dear mother, dear mother, the church is cold, but the ale house is healthy and pleasant and warm.’ This suggests that the boy doesn’t mind actually going to church it is just that he hates the atmosphere in there. He compares it to an ale house and says he finds the ale house more comforting and welcoming to him physically and spiritually where as the church is cold and this could mean literally as in temperature or metaphorically that it is cold-hearted and unfeeling. So this poem suggests that religion itself isn’t bad it is just the unwelcoming attitude it has and it shows that Blake feels churches should change to become nicer places.
In the innocence version of the ‘Holy Thursday’ poems the poet almost seems to admire the children as he says they are, ‘flowers of London town.’ This metaphor makes them seem delicate and precious because we know that London at the time was very industrial so the children being symbolised by flowers makes them seem both natural and beautiful in contrast to the city around them. The children are linked to nature again when the poet describes them in the second stanza, ‘multitudes of lambs.’ This metaphor is used by Blake to emphasize the children’s youth and innocence. The poet also seems to be in awe of the children when he says, ‘like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song.’ This is again linking to nature because he uses the simile to compare them to ‘a mighty wind’ and this makes their singing seem very happy. In the experience version the children are again linked to nature and innocence, however they are portrayed in a more negative way and seem a lot more miserable. ‘And their sun does never shine, and their fields are bleak and bare, and their ways are filled with thorns: it is eternal winter there.’ Here Blake has used parallel syntax in the first three lines to make it stand out more to the reader and he has used nature as a metaphor for the children’s lives, but, where as the innocence version was focused on their good characteristics, this section focuses on the misery and poverty of the children’s lives. This poem also links to the innocence poem when the poet asks a rhetorical question about the children’s singing, ‘is that trembling cry a song? Can it be a song of joy?’ This contrasts with the innocence version where the song sounded happy and Blake could be saying that in reality the children are scared, hence the use of the word ‘trembling,’ and he is asking the reader how the children can be happy if they have to live in the miserable conditions they are in.
In the two ‘Holy Thursday’ poems the figures of authority are the beadles and those that own the charity schools that the children go to. In the experience version they are described as feeding the children with, ‘cold and usurious hand,’ which makes them seem quite cruel because they are trying to make a profit out of the children instead of caring for them. The word ‘cold’ is also probably a metaphor for the cold-heartedness of the owners of the charity schools. In the innocence version the beadles are described as having, ‘wands as white as snow,’ and this is ironic because white is normally symbolic of innocence and purity when in fact the beadles are old and were feared by the children. This symbol of purity and innocence is then changed however when Blake finishes the line with the simile comparing them to snow, which is probably symbolic again of the cold-heartedness of the beadles and links to winter which is again cold and might represent their age as it is the end of the year. In ‘The Little Vagabond’ the boy’s thoughts contrast with the ideas in the other two poems because he seems to think that it is the atmosphere at church and religion itself that are wrong and too strict rather than the figures of authority their because he says if church was more like an ale house then, ‘the parson might preach, and drink, and sing.’ And he also says something similar of ‘Dame Lurch’ who was a folk figure of the time that punished small children, so he believes that is the church was welcoming it would redeem everyone and everyone their would be happy and welcoming as well.
Another thing that ‘The Little Vagabond’ poem does is give us insight in to how Blake saw the Britain that he lived in. The boy talks about how the church isn’t a very nice place to visit and of how the ale house is a lot more welcoming and happy. The boy says, ‘and modest Dame Lurch, who is always at church,’ which tells us that the boy thought the church was very strict and possibly cruel towards children. This would have been quite shocking at the time because religion was a big part of life and Blake is saying that ale houses were better places to be than churches. The last stanza would also have been seen as rather shocking at the time because the boy says, ‘And God…would have no more quarrel with the devil or the barrel, but kiss him and give him both drink and apparel.’ Here the boy is suggesting that the church should be a more harmonious place and not be as strictly against things like alcohol and should instead promote reconciliation because that is what a loving God would want. However, people living in Britain at the time would have been surprised and very possibly angered by this idea of God become almost friend’s with the devil and giving him clothes and drink because the church of England at the time was very sternly against sinning and alcohol consumption. I think the boy’s idea of a more welcoming church is one that Blake believes well never happen as it is being portrayed as the wishful thinking young children have and it is a false hope and Blake is criticising he church for this; similarly to how he criticised the hypocrisy of the church in the two Holy Thursday poems.
