THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER(SONGS OF INNOCENCE)

BY WILLIAM BLAKE

GROUP MEMBERS :

TAN VI LER

YOUNG POH PING

TING NGIIK YING

YII WAN JIUN

BACKGROUND OF POET

28 November 1757-

12 August 1827

A boldly imaginative rebel

in both his thought and art.

He combined poetic and

pictorial genius to explore life.

An English poet, painter and printmaker.

William Blake

BRIEF OVERVIEW

This poem is narrated by the poet himself. First of all, he tells us a little bit about his childhood. When his mother

passed away, his father sold him for money to become a labour who

swept the chimneys.

Next, he introduces a fellow called Tom Dacre who was also a chimney

sweeper. Tom cried because his hair was shaved to prevent soot from

infesting it. He felt depressed of his job.

At night, Tom dreamed that thousands of chimney

sweepers were locked up in black coffins (symbolize the

hardship they faced).

However, an Angel succeeded to set them free. The Angel told Tom to be a good boy so as to become the child of God. The following day of his dream, he

became optimistic towards what he had to suffer.

Literary devices

Symbolism

•Innocence

lamb

•Hardship faced by sweepers

coffin of black

•Person who gives hope to the sweepers

Angel who had a bright key

•Growth, fertility and spring

Green•C

lean away the sin

Wash in a river

•A lift from lower class positions to upper-class

Rise upon cloud

•Figurative emotional baggage of their soot-filled experiences

Bags

Metaphor

As Tom was a-sleepingTom was having a moment of peace, disconnected for a while with the real and chaotic world.

Simile

Comparing the curly hair of Tom with the back of a lamb. Both of the two objects share the same form (the back of a lamb is compound by lots of curls which are curved in shape).

That curl’d like a lamb’s back

Alliteration

Alliteration of words beginning with the letter ‘s’

Makes the words sound fun and energetic.

• So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep • As Tom was a sleeping he had such a sight

Repetition

Example : could scarcely cry “weep!

weep! weep! weep!”

• Cry of a young child when his

mother passed away and he

was being sold by his father.

• “cry weep, weep ,weep, weep” deepen the impression of the mother's death and the crying chimney sweeper.

• “So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep” represent the sound like a brush

repetitiously scraping a chimney wall.• “Then down a green plain leaping, laughing,

they run” represent happiness and joyfulness

Onomatopoeia

TONE AND MOOD

MOOD

Melancholic

I feel sympathy towards the

tribulation faced by the children at

that time.

Helpless

• The poet was sold to be a chimney sweeper when he could merely speak.

Critical

• The children were too young to sweep the chimneys.

TONES

THEMES

Theme of Innocence

•Represented by Tom and other sweepers.

•They are unaware of the oppression.

•They believe that if they are obedient

and do their duty, everything will be well.

•Tom tends to dream that other sweepers

are being locked in black coffins but an

Angel succeeds to set them free.

Theme of Social Injustice

• The issues highlighted in this

poem are about child labours

and how young children of low

social status are put in

dangerous situations to help

their families.

• These issues clearly show social

injustice in Western country at

that time.