The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake

The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake

 

 

1. Where from the two poems on the Chimney Swee per are taken ?

The two poems on the Chimney Sweeper are taken from two volumes of Blake’s child-songs- The Songs of Innocence and The Songs of Experience.

2. Tom Dacre and his dream. What did the angel do when Tom was asleeping ?

Tom Dacre was one little chimney sweeper. He had a vison in his dream. That was of an angel who came to release all boy sweepers from their confinement in the coffins of dark soots. The happy sweeps were all gay and sportive and inspired by the angel with the message of honest and sincere living.

3. The inspired function of the young sweeps after the bright angel’s instruction.

The inspiring lesson from the angel to Tom Dacre in his dream made the young sweeps all very punctual and attentive to their duties. They got ready, with their begs and brushes, despite the biting cold weather, quite early in the morning, to join their work on time.

4. A little black thing among the snow. EXPLAIN

This refers to the soot covering a little chimney sweeper in a cold weather with snowfall.

5. The makers of the heaven of misery. Explain

According to the second chimney sweeper, the makers of their misery are the king and the priests who pose to represent God.

 

7. How did the child come to sweep chinneys and sleep in soot ?

After the death of his mother, when he was too little, his father sold him for the work of a chimney sweeper. Thereafter, the little boy had to deep chimneys with his body, all covered with soots. He even slept in the state.

8. How far Blake’s grief and humanism are echoed in the second song of the ‘chimney-sweeper’?

The second song of the ‘chimney-sweepers’ strongly echo Gray’s protest against social tyrranny and inhumanity and his profound humanism for human right and liberation against oppression and exploitation of little ‘chimney-sweepers’.

 

9. Reproduce briefly the cry of anger and despair of the chimneysweepers.

The cry of anger and despair from the young chimney sweeper in Willian Blake’s song The Chimney Sweeper, is extracted from his Songs of Experience. The lad expresses here his bitter indictment at his parents who have put him to hard and hazardous drudgery as a chimney sweep.

 The selfish and callous parents of the chimney sweep sent him to work at chimneys for their own gains out of his earning. As they found him gay and sportive in the open field, they grew jealous and made out a scheme to have their own selfish gain out of his trouble and toil. So he had been turned into a chimney sweeper with his body all covered in black soot. He sings now the song of sorrow as he works in the tall sooty chimneys.

The expression ‘clothes of death’ sharply signifies the thick covering of the soot that appears to be a clothing of death, deemed as dark always.

10. Q. How does the poet protests against the conduct of the parents of young chimney-sweepers sent to work too early in their age?

As they find their lad still in a gay and sportive mood, the fellow workers look upon him as one quite satisfied with his lot. But they actually fail to realize his grievance and grudge for what has been done to him. He is terribly anguished and embittered with a sense of wrong and injustice meted out to him. As a helpless and poor prey to the ruthless exploitation of the persons in authority, he gives vent to his anger and indignation against them. He asserts angrily that, under the supposed authorization from God, the bench of the bishops and the rulers have let loose a reign of exploitation to win for themselves a lavish and lordly living.

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The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake