Romantic Essay

Anna Ebaugh

Mrs. Wilson

British Literature B

May 12, 2013

Romantic Period Essay

The Romantic Period lasted between 1798 and 1832. During this period, their agricultural society turned into an industrial nation, which then created desperate living conditions and increased child labor (Henry 711). The Romance of the Romantic Period signifies a fascination with a child’s sense of wonder and their innocence (Henry 713). In “Chimney Sweeper: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience” by William Blake, he uses symbolism, children’s imagination, and irony to emphasize how the harsh child labor in the Romantic Period is destroying children’s innocence.

William Blake uses symbolism in these two poems to show the contrast between the chimney sweeper’s innocence and their excruciating child labor. Blake uses the colors white and black throughout both of his poems to symbolize their innocence and their miserable lives. White symbolizes innocence and the childhood that children are supposed to have. Black symbolizes their miserable lives working as a chimney sweeper and everything bad about child labor. In “Songs of Innocence”, Blake says, “’Hush, Tom!’ never mind it, for when your head’s bare, / you know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair” (ll. 7-8). Blake mentions the “white hair” instead of just “hair” because it shows that they are still children and that they are innocent. The fact that his white hair is being shaved off, shows that their innocence is being taken away by child labor. In “Songs of Experience”, Blake says, “because I was happy upon the heath, / and smiled among the winter’s snow...” (ll. 5-6). The whiteness of the snow symbolizes nature and naturalness which contrasts with the unnaturalness of a chimney sweeper. The fact that the snow is white symbolizes that there is much better things outside of their world as chimney sweepers. The use of “black” in these poems symbolizes the awful lives of the chimney sweepers and what they have to go through. In “Songs of Innocence”, William Blake talks about black and he says, “That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack, /were all of them locked up in coffins of black” (ll. 11-12). In this quote, locked up is meaning that they feel trapped, coffins mean that they feel like they are already dead, and black is referring to their soot covered bodies and their miserable lives. In “Songs of Experience”, Blake says, “A little black thing among the snow” (l. 1). This quote shows that “the little black thing” is unrecognizable and doesn’t even look like a little boy. The boy is completely covered in soot that the adult doesn’t even know that “the little back thing” is a little boy. In these two poems, white and black contrast completely about how the boys lives should and shouldn’t be.

Imagination is all these boys have left of their childhood and even that is starting to be taken away by child labor. In “Songs of Innocence” the narrator talks about his fellow chimney sweeper, Tom Dacre, and Tom has a very different imagination compared to the narrator. Blake talks about a dream Tom is having and he says, “And by came an angel who had a bright key, / And he opened the coffins and 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 and white, all their bags left behind (ll. 13-17). Tom is dreaming about heaven and where he will go once he dies from being a chimney sweeper. Being naked and white shows that they are clean and innocent again. This quote shows that Tom still has hope because he is imagining a perfect heaven but we can’t say the same for the speaker. We can conclude that the speaker does not feel the same way that Tom does and does not have any hope for himself because the speaker has a negative tone throughout the poem and only talks about how Tom is happy, not himself. In “Songs of Experience”, the narrator has no imagination and absolutely no hope at all for the afterlife. The narrator now realizes that his own parents made him become a chimney sweeper and that ruined his innocence and his imagination. Imagination is being destroyed by child labor and what these kids have to go through.

Irony is being portrayed in these poems to express how the chimney sweepers feel about their horrible lives. In “Songs of Innocence” the narrator talks about Tom and how Tom is dreaming of heaven. William Blake says, “Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm” (l. 23). This quote is ironic because Tom is a chimney sweeper and he experiences very harsh child labor, yet he is happy and he still has hope. It is ironic that Tom could still be happy and overlook everything bad around him because he still has his imagination and innocence. In “Songs of Experience”, Blake says, “They clothed me in the clothes of death, / and taught me to sing the notes of woe” (ll. 8-9). It is ironic that his own parents contributed to making him a chimney sweeper and they were the ones who clothed him in the “clothes of death”. Parents are supposed to take care of their child, so it is ironic that they are the ones making their child miserable. In the last stanza of the poem “Songs of Experience”, he says, “and because I am happy and dance and sing, / they think they have done me no injury” (ll. 9-10). His parents think that he is happy when he is really not. He talks about singing “notes of woe” which shows that he is not singing happily, he is singing out of misery and his parents don’t even know. It is ironic that his parents think he is okay and that they are in church praising God because they think their son is happy when really he is completely miserable.

In “Chimney Sweeper: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience” by William Blake, he uses symbolism, children’s imagination, and irony to emphasize how the harsh child labor in the Romantic Period is destroying children’s innocence. All three of these tools show that the children’s innocence and childhood is slowly degrading through their times as a chimney sweeper. Child labor has greatly increased because of the Industrial Revolution which creates a loss of innocence and a loss of the children having a childhood because of child labor.