William Blake

CHIMNEY SWEEPER

 

text.......analysis

Mary Poppins
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SONGS OF INNOCENCE
THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER

Italiano

When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry "weep!'weep!'weep!'weep'!"
So your chimneys I sweep, & in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curl'd like a lamb's back, was shav'd: so I sad
"hush, Tom! Never mind it, for when your head's bare:
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."

And so he was quiet, & that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack,
Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black.

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And 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.

Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father, & never want joy.

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 & warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.

ANALYSIS
Introduction
The poem is about the exploitation of the children that are constrained to work as chimney sweeper and to live in the dirty with the only dream to be free. Chimney Sweeper were children of very poor families who were sold for little money to a master. He exploited these little children because they were small and could easily climb up the very narrow chimneys and clean then. The soot collected was put into bags in which the children slept because they were homeless. This job was very dangerous because the children, often naked to get into chimneys more easily, got injured, or risked being suffocated when there was a fire still burning. Sometimes the master stuck pins in the children's feet as they were climbing. Because of the pain they felt, the children climbed faster. The children also had their hair completely cut and soon became black from the soot.
Analysis
In the first stanza it's present the theme of the juvenile exploitation and the attitude of the protagonist is designed.
In the second stanza the little sweeper tries to alleviate his friends pain due to the fact that he has no longer "his white hair".
In the third stanza a very hard a significative symbol dominates: the dreams of the black coffins that represent the physicol and phsycological oppression caused by this dangerous work. The black of the coffins is the symbol of death, of dirty and of the sense of elosing and suffocation.
In the fourth stanza it's underlined the liberatoin of the sweepers, by an Angel. Here we have a metaphor: the children are happy to free themselves from the dirty and wash in fresh and cold water. We have also a contrast of colors: the black (death) and "the green" of the field (the hope, the freedom).
In the fifth stanza the Angel reassures the cimney sweeper inviting him to accept his work with resignation for having God for father. In the last part in the we assist to the awakening of the sweepers that, conforted by the dream, begin the working day in harmony thinking that, at the end of their duty, they will be free to dream.
INIZIO