6/10/2023 0 Comments The chimney sweeper experience![]() ![]() ![]() Whittaker (2020) argues that the poems from Songs of Innocence and of Experience are associated with either “the love between parent and child, or child and the natural world” (p. The natural scenery is juxtaposed against the lifeless, perhaps industrial imagery of the chimney. There is certain dynamism to the scene: children running through a landscape, where earth (a green plain), water (a river), and fire (the sun) circle them around. The lines “Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run, / And wash in a river and shine in the Sun” (Blake, 1789, Lines 15-16) play with the naturalistic imagery, evoking a sense of cheerfulness and joy. This contrast becomes evident when the last verse introduces the new setting to the reader: freezing children working in the morning, cleaning out the chimneys. The power of imagery in the poem reaches its peak at the end when the reader sees the contrast between two settings of the poem: Tom’s dream and reality. ![]()
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