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 of England promulgates. This image makes a mockery of the love and care that should characterize the Christian religion. The woeful cry of the chimney-sweeper and the blackening of church walls, imply that the church as an institution is inactive, unwilling to help the helpless. Blake uses the religious imagery of the "black'ning church" to represent the loss of innocence, and the society's abandonment of religion.During Blake's time, much money was spent on church while children were dying each year from abject poverty or with injuries directly relating to the work they had to do /endure just to earn a pittance. …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 subsequent interest in child labour. The use of “appalls,” brings to the mind /reminds us the word “pall”, the/a cover that is laid /spread over a coffin, thus emphasizing the black Church as coffin. It implies/denotes that the church is effectively dead, burying its traditional principles in order to satisfy the capitalist phenomenon. It can be said that these two little lines are not only an indictment of the child labor, but shows the impotence of moral authority to do something concerning it. Soldier: The hypocrisy of the power structure in society is also expressed by the “hapless soldier’s cry” (124) whose “blood” runs “down palace walls”. Blake’s social commentary is strongly apparent in the following accusatory lines: And the hapless soldier's sigh Runs in blood down palace walls ` This reference to the running of ‘blood down palace walls' which is also linked to …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