Analysis Of The Chimney Sweeper's Cry

The tone of anger and condemnation once again intensifies with another example of the impotence of moral authority All hope for a brighter future is lost. Even the church is jaded and has lost it ability to comfort the people as expressed in the following lines: How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry Every black’ning Church appalls;

The very lines prompt an even bleaker view of England in the nineteenth-century. The lines/sentences introduce us to the chimney-sweeper who are none but the destitute children and to the church which was a domineering and powerful institution devoid of light and goodness at the time. The strength of the poem lies in its ironic contrasts. The chimney-sweeper’s cry is an affront to the Christianity that the church …show more content…
Here Blake exemplifies the hypocrisy in the implied power of the church, which has the power to stop child labour, but does not. Rather the innocent children, no longer free to enjoy childhood, are forced to clean chimneys - the sweeps from which make the church noticeably blackened. It can be seen more metaphorically in that the church's reputation was being increasingly tarnished/besmirched by their blatant lack of response to the corruption of society with its …show more content…
Even in times of crisis, the class system was in effect. The “palace walls” are the symbols of the power structure of the ruling power, the King or Queen. It is this power which starts the wars to which soldiers pay for with their lives.The deliberate use of sibilance in 'the hapless soldier's sigh runs in blood down palace walls' provides an onomatopoeic hiss that conjures a particularly sinister atmosphere to emphasise the soldier's on-going weakness, being forced into battle for a country they no longer appreciate and are appreciated by. They are used only to suit the state’s needs. After that they are left out on the street with nothing, a rejection of the