An Unfolding of William Blakes quot; the Chimney...

An Unfolding of William Blakes The Chimney Sweeper. William Blakes poem The Chimney Sweeper gives us a look into the unfortunate lives of 18th century London boys whose primary job was to clear chimneys of the soot that accumulated on its interior; boys that were named climbing boys or chimney sweepers. Blake, a professional engraver, wrote this poem (aabb rhyme), in the voice of a young boy, an uneducated chimney sweeper. This speaker is obviously a persona, a fictitious character created by Blake, as it is apparent that he wasnt a child or a chimney sweeper at the time he wrote this poem. The Chimney Sweeper is divided in six stanzas; the first stanza of this narrative poem starts off with the young chimney sweeper,†¦show more content†¦The voice of the story, the young boy, in the seventh verse showed compassion for the new climbing boy and by doing this he made visible to us that the real child in him had not died, that although he had to work in conditions that were not suitable for a boy his age, he still kept his humanity. In the poems next 2 stanzas the narrator speaks about a dream that Tom Dacre had the same day his youth was taken from him. He had dreamt that sweepers whom he knew where all of them locked up in coffins of black. The black color of these coffins means, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, seriously bad or unfortunate, associated with severely bad conditions or misfortune. The coffins, which are a container in which a dead body is placed for a burial (OED), represent all of them being trapped in this miserable black world where, ironically, children worked to make money for adults. The entire dream is influenced by Toms fear of being trapped in this hell for all his life. Later, in the fifth stanza an Angel appeared in Toms dream that opened up the coffins and set them free of their misfortune. This angel that freed them can be considered as an omen, a sign that shows how something, good or bad, will happen in the future. Tom ran down a flat expanse of land with the sweepers where they had fun and washed themselves up. The words bright and shine Blake used in verses thirteen