Essay Database

William Blake The Chimney Sweeper The Chimney Sweeper is set against the dark background of child labour that was prominent in England in the late 18th and 19th Century. It gives hints into Blake's thoughts, both pessimistic and optimistic, on the world around him and in the last stanza in particular that worlds relationship with God. Curiously, the poem insinuates that through work we may find redemption, which seems to contradict the main thrust of …

…survive is prominent throughout the poem while trying to give what great pains Tom and all the thousands of sweeper had to endure. The Chimney Sweeper is a disturbing poem of how the children endure great hardships to the extent of exploitation, in order to raise money for their families. The Dream is Blakes attempt to offer hope for these children; it seems a curiously typical Christian belief that their deaths were their only hope.