... that is used in both poems. The line: "Could scarcely cry " 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!" from poem 1, and the line: "Crying " 'weep, 'weep," in notes of woe" from poem 2. The term " 'weep" is an attempt to say, "sweep", but they cannot pronounce it right. This of course tells us that both speakers are at a ... is one example of how the colour black functions as a destructive element: "They clothed me in the clothes of death, And taught me to sing the notes of woe.". In this line, clothes of death are of course the black clothes that the chimney sweepers wore. There seems little doubt th...

• Word Count: 2076
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... how the sweet and gentle God of Innocence, created or allowed the creation of the miseries that abound in Experience. According to A. Powell, "The author notes that the perfect, beautiful, symmetrical, work of art (the tyger) is such a destructive animal: here Blake is identifying the idea that there, in fact ... merciful, kind, and gentle. For instance in the poem "The Chimney Sweeper" it is an angel who "open'd the coffins & set them all free." To the children in the poem, the thought of heaven is a great comfort because while they may have to undergo an enormous amount of agony here .....

• Word Count: 2556
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... ;Sick Rose". William Blake could be characterized as an antinomian. He was a person who based his own religion and morality based on personal experiences with God, or a higher power (Notes, 6/27). His individualistic approach to life can be seen in his modernizing work Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. One of the more difficult works of Blake to assess ... to a "trembling cry" (line 5, pg 24). The last stanza is also prescriptive of society, meaning that this is the way society should be, not the way it is (Notes, 6/27). Society is full of hunger, suffering, and poverty. Both H...

• Word Count: 1237
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... innocent child, shares his dreams of angels and the salvation of the sweeps: "And by came an angel who had a bright key, And he open'd the coffins & set them all free;" This sort of social consciousness in literature, stimulated by the French Revolution, also allows Blake to show in the second poem, through an experienced narrator, the true plight of child ... laborers: "Crying'weep! weep!' in notes of woe!" While searching for more information regarding the child laborers of this time I found several notes that the word "weep" may have actually been the word "sweep" - a result of a Coc...

• Word Count: 1853
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... of continuing work as a chimney sweeper. As the dream continues, an angel appears with a bright key; "And he opened the coffins and set them all free-(17). Images are given of the young chimney sweepers, set free, running down to the river, and cleaning themselves of all the soot, then drying in the sun. As the dream continues, the Angel speaks to ... , there is a nice rhythm, flow and happy tone showing their child-like innocence. They are extremely naive to accept performing this job and think they will be forever happy and free from harm, "So if they all do their duty they need not fe...

• Word Count: 1280
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... is surrounding the speaker. However, in the next stanza the speaker says, "and by came an angel, who had a bright key,/ And he opened the coffins, and set them all free;" The angel can be considered to be a representation of the color white, showing purity and innocence. This shows the narrator's point of view as innocent and pure because he believes ... that an angel will come and set the children free of the horrible life they have lived as chimney sweepers, living in the soot from the chimneys. In the Songs of Innocence poem the narrator has hope for the future ... heaven, where the...

• Word Count: 654
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... his "Songs of Innocence and Experience" which express two opposites, happiness or misery, heaven or hell. "Innocence" expresses the state of childhood, into which we are all born, a state of free imagination and infinite joy. "Experience", is a state when disaster has destroyed initial happiness. He believes that problems concerning child labor, religious institutions, individual apathy, prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, war and ... heath and smiled among the winter's snow"(5-6), which suggests that he was then put into a woeful life for a child's happiness is not allowed. Th...

• Word Count: 1046
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... sacrificial lamb, sacrificed into a life of hardship, poverty, and early death. The child dreams of an "Angel who had a bright key and he opened the coffins and set them all free," an angel who carried the word of God and of eternal life. The "river" that they wash in is symbolic of the baptism that cleanses away their sins, and "shine ... does not stand point blank, but it is clear what he implies from the emphasized manifestations that he creates when he talks about the little boy "Crying " "weep,"weep," in notes of woe!".(W.B.BITL 829) Blake was raised with a great biblical upbringin...

• Word Count: 2002
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... much of his life, sweeping chimneys and living in filth. He and his friends couldn't take it anymore, then an angel showed up and freed them from it. They were free and living in cleanliness. It was such a feeling for them, one they had never experienced before. The Songs from Experience starts out with Earth's Answer. This is a sorrowful poem, full ... of a young child that is happy, but those that were watching over him did not want this, they clothed him in clothes of death and taught him to sing the notes of woe. They did not want him to be happy. The second of the three is a mocker...

• Word Count: 1008
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School