Industrial Revolution William Blake Analysis

The Industrial Revolution brought about many new and innovative inventions that we still use today in modern society. However, it took the hard work of many people, young and old, to achieve these feats. Poet William Blake, who lived through these trying times, wrote two poems describing the lives of the working class. Both of Blake’s poems reflect on the lives of young children working as chimney sweeps and what they go through in their daily lives. Yet their point of view, diction, and tone are quite different. Whereas in the first poem, Blake creates the story of a young boy who is slightly unaware of his dire circumstance, in the second poem he develops the story of a boy more in tune with the true reality on his situation. Although written in different styles, Blake effectively portrays the horrible lives these workers through the eyes of young children. Both the 1789 version and the 1794 versions of The Chimney Sweeper poems are similar in many ways. Both poems address the rather degrading lives of workers in industrial London, but what makes them even worse is that Blake describes these horrible conditions from the points of view of children. In poem one, Blake describes an what seems to be a slightly older chimney sweep addressing a younger boy who seems to be new to the job. The poem opens with the speaker reminiscing about when he first became a sweep. The second stanza describes the speaker trying to comfort a little boy, Tom Dacre, who becomes very upset when his employers cut off his hair. In the fourth and

Blake’s subtle social commentary allowed readers to truly understand the very distinct class difference during this time. The two different points of view and tones in the poem permitted readers to experience two different perspectives on the very same