“And my father sold me while yet my tongue could scarcely cry “’weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!”
His father sold him when he was really young. Blake emphasizes this by stating that the child is so young he cannot even say sweep, only “weep”. Again he makes you feel that this child does not seem to have any happiness in his life so far. And to finish the verse off he uses alliteration, so the phrase “weep” stands out and keeps in your mind.
The child says, “Hush, Tom! Never mind it, for when your head’s bare you know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.”
This is the only thing that Blake can say that is comforting. This also shows how bad his life must be, because there is nothing else to comfort him with.
Then that night, “As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight! That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned and Jack, Were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black.”
Tom moves from reality to dreams and visions. Blake emphasizes the huge amount of suffering by saying “Thousands of sweepers” which is an awful amount of children to be chimneysweepers. And when he uses names that make it more personal for the reader. But the phrase that you take in the most is the “coffins of black”. Black symbolises death, suffering, sadness and misery. It is also the colour of soot so Blake could be implying that the soot is the death of them and also it locks them up and puts them away.
During the child’s dream this is what he sees, “ And by came an Angel who had a bright key, And so he open’d the coffins & set them all free; Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run, And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.”
Blake creates this image of Tom going to heaven and an angel setting everyone free. Then Blake creates another image of these boys running down a green plain “laughing and leaping” with no worries in the world. As we know from ‘The School Boy’, Blake believes that children should be out and enjoying the nature and the sun.
At the end of the dream, “Then naked & white, all their bags left behind, They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind; And the angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy, He’d have God for his father & never want joy.”
Blake uses “naked and white” to emphasize innocence and purity of the children. Could also mean that they have washed all the soot away or even all their sins away. And they have left their bags behind because they will not need them anymore; they have left that horrible life and have gone to a better place. Then they rise upon the clouds and sport, they are having fun and playing games as they should be, not cleaning the soot in chimneys.
And the angel tells Tom that if he is a good boy then this will happen, but it is a conditional connective, meaning that he must be a good boy. And he will have his God as a father, which would appeal to him since he never had a proper father.
Blake says, “And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark, And got with our bags & our brushes to work. Tho’ the morning was cold, Tom was happy & and warm; So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.”
We come back to reality again and even though it is a cold morning, Tom is happy and warm. He has the dream and this new knowledge that comforts him and puts a blanket round him and cheers him up. And at the end Blake finishes by saying that if they do their job and they will have happiness as a reward, later on.
The second poem that I have chosen is “The Garden Of Love”, this is from Songs of Experience.
Blake begins, “I went to the Garden Of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green.”
The Garden of Love is a metaphor for the Garden Of Eden, which symbolises a world with out sin, and there was no church then. Adam and Eve communicated with God themselves then, and they did not need the church for that. Then he states that a chapel was built on the green when he used to play, so maybe the chapel has ruined his freedom to play on the green. And as before we know that Blake believes people should get pleasure from nature and freedom.
Then Blake says, “And the gates of this chapel were shut, And thou shalt not. writ over the door; So I turn’d to the Garden Of Love, That so many sweet flowers bore.”
“Thou shalt not” is an important phrase from Bible; it is used in the 10 Commandments from Exodus/ Leviticus. Blake believed God wrote the Bible. But it is interesting that the phrase the church has lifted out of it is, “thou shalt not” emphasising the negatives. And the only way to talk to him is through the church, but as before with Adam and Eve, they did not need the church to communicate with God. So instead he turns to the Garden of Love instead.
Blake says, “And I saw it was filled with graves, And tomb-stones where flowers should be: And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires.”
The church has replaced all the beautiful flowers with cheerless graves. Blake states that the church destroys everything beautiful in its path. ‘And priests in black gowns’ black symbolises death and misery. The priests do all the churches’ dirty work so they have the black gowns to show they bring wretchedness. This is repeated in the poem ‘A Little Boy Lost’.
‘And binding with briars, my joys and desires.’ The verb binding is a very strong word; Blake is saying that the priests bind your joys and desires with briars, which are sharp and painful.
I think the tone is bitter as it has nothing pleasant about it. The theme is institutionalised religion, which ironically leads to a spiritual death; basically it slowly destroys your spirit.
There are quite a few similarities between “The Chimney Sweeper” and “The Garden of Love” and quite a few connections between two and other Blake pomes.
The first similarity between the two poems is religion and the church. In Chimney Sweeper Blake states that the chimneysweepers, basically children that are slaves, should turn to God to for help and he is their only hope. In “Garden of Love” he states that the church has taken religion and ruined it. Blake declares that the church is wrong saying that the only way to communicate to God is through it. Adam and Eve in their state of innocence spoke to God without the church. The little chimney sweeper Tom spoke to an angel who promised him that he would be with God; this was all through a dream, not the church. In “A Little Boy Lost”, the church takes the little boy and takes away all his hopes and they bind him, again. The parents are defenceless to help their little boy. In the Georgian Era the Church was very powerful and no one dared challenge its powers, as the consequences would be dreadful. In “London”, the Church is declared spiritually corrupt and referred to as a ‘blackning Church’ which “appals”, and black is the colour of death and sadness, etc.
Another similarity between Blake’s poems is the Government and his views towards it.
Blake states in “The Chimney Sweeper” that the reason that all these poor unlucky children are slaves is because of the government allowing it. The similarity this has with “The Garden of Love” is that the government allows the church to carry out these awful deeds. Blake blames the government for the country’s problems and for not getting their act together. In “London”, Blake blames the government again for the state the city is in, and how soldiers have to fight their own friends and fellow people as the government ordered because it was afraid there would be an uprising. And finally Blake holds responsible the government for making children go to school instead of going out side to enjoy nature like they should be doing, in “The School Boy”.
This links us with another similarity between the poems, nature.
Blake expresses how much he likes and appreciates nature and its wonders. In “The Chimney Sweeper”, the boy is running and having fun with no worries in the world on a green plain or in the river with the sun shining. In “The School Boy”, Blake uses first person narrative, which makes it more personal, and shows how he loves the sun, birds and freedom. In “The Lamb” he pronounces how the lamb plays in the fields and by the rivers, etc. And finally in “The Garden of Love”, Blake says how the Chapel was built on the green grass, which also refers to the other similarity about the Church ruining and taking away freedom and basically throwing away the key.
Those are some of the main similarities between Blake’s poems. As you have noticed in all of his poems, Blake is always true; he does not lock away his opinions like other people do. He believes in being truthful is very important.
In my opinion there are not many differences between Blake’s poems as they are all connected to each other and have similar views.
The main difference is that they have different subjects. Each subject has a different viewpoint in it, but they relate to each other and in the link to Blake’s view of religion, the government and nature. His views have slightly changed from Songs of Innocence to Songs of Experience. I think that the reason for this is that he has got older and wiser, which also links with the name ‘Experience’.
After analysing the poems and recognising the differences and similarities I can explain how William Blake uses Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence to express his views about the society. As I have gone through and analysed his poems I have explained how he is truthful and not afraid to express his views. The three main factors that he conveys are criticizing the government, stating the fault of man-made religion (The Church) and greatness of nature and freedom.
In all his poems he uses at least one of those points if not more. He is not afraid to criticize the government or the Church unlike most people of his tune. These poems to a modern audience might make sense but they are not to be compared to the modern government and Church. The reason for this is that the government has changed so much now and controls the church. The Church is not as powerful as it used to be and cannot do whatever it wishes to do. School today cannot be compared to school in “The School Boy”, for it is definitely not the same as the school in that era. School has changed, there is no caning or hitting, lessons are fun, freedom is enjoyed at break and lunch times and teachers are friendly. We do not have chimney sweepers around any more, as it is dangerous and a sin to make a child a slave. London has now changed for the better even though pollution is still very bad. “The Garden of Love” can be compared to a modern society as the church still claims that to communicate with God it has to be with the church but it is not the same, people have the choice to or not to believe in the church and are not forced to.
The church cannot call a little boy a ‘fiend’ and the parent can protect their child from the church.
Blake uses metaphor really well and can create a mental picture to symbolise something else. For example:
“I went to the Garden of Love”
This presents an image of a garden. And you think about the Garden of Eden.
Blake often describes an object or person as something else for effect.
“How can the bird that is born for joy, Sit in a cage?”
The child is referred to as a bird that is locked away in a cage and cannot enjoy freedom.
These are just a few ways that Blake emphasizes his views.
The poems do relate to the title in my opinion. Most of the poems in Songs of Innocence are mild like “The Lamb” and Blake does not blame religion and does not blame the government as much as he does in Songs of Experience. In Songs of Experience Blake holds the government and religion responsible for the awful state of the country. In a way it is like he has had more experience and has realised these problems are worse than he thought.
By Paris Deacon
