Blakes The Chimney Sweeper

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

of exploiting these small boys. Most of this symbolism appears to be about death. This gives the poem a dark mood. For example, Blake writes “So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep” (554). Most of the boys who were sold into chimney sweeping died very young because the soot inhalation destroyed their lungs. In this quote sleeping in soot symbolizes dying in soot, or from the soot. Blake also symbolizes these boys’ fate with the lines “That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack/ Were all of them locked up in coffins of black” (554). In this quote the “coffins of black” symbolize the chimneys (554). Ultimately this all symbolizes the boys’ death because of their terrible life cleaning chimneys at such a young age. In the next stanza an Angel comes “And he opened the coffins and set them all free,” which symbolizes the boys’ death and escape to heaven. All of these symbols cause feelings of sympathy in ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE: