“[R]omanticism means, to most students a unitary shadowy phenomenon which can be extrapolated as forming a middle ground bounded by six poets: Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats and Shelly” (Aers et al. 1). This paper deals with a work by the firstly named author: Blake. It is about the poem “The Chimney Sweeper: A little white thing among the snow” from 1794 from his collection of works named Songs of Experience. The poem is a companion poem to the formerly written “The Chimney Sweeper: When my mother died I was very young” from 1789 to be found in Blake’s Songs of Innocence. This paper is going to answer the question, which Romantic elements are to be found in the poem “The Chimney Sweeper: A little white thing among the snow” from
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Tom is overwhelmed by his happiness. These examples show the romantic motif of the connection with nature and the feelings of the chimney sweeper. Thirdly, there is a critique to be found in social aspects given in the poem, which was one of the main goals of romantic writings. The term romanticism stands for “the many manifestations of the spirit of universal revolt against seventeenth and early eighteenth century standards of social life” (Hulme 215). In this poem, the cruelty in the life of the young chimney sweeper is criticized. At that time chimney sweepers often just lived in cellars and were weakened by the work they did. Many did not reach the age of adulthood. Normally, master-sweepers bought five-year old boys, preferably thin ones, often from poor widows, orphanages or workhouses to work for them (Fulford 37). The boy described in the poem was also sold by his parents: “They clothed me in the clothes of death, And taught me to sing the notes of woe” (Blake line 7-8). The “clothes of death” could be seen as a symbol for his work clothes and therefore for his possible early death, because of the bad work conditions. The pronoun “they” presents his parents but also the whole society who did nothing against the harshness of
Tom is overwhelmed by his happiness. These examples show the romantic motif of the connection with nature and the feelings of the chimney sweeper. Thirdly, there is a critique to be found in social aspects given in the poem, which was one of the main goals of romantic writings. The term romanticism stands for “the many manifestations of the spirit of universal revolt against seventeenth and early eighteenth century standards of social life” (Hulme 215). In this poem, the cruelty in the life of the young chimney sweeper is criticized. At that time chimney sweepers often just lived in cellars and were weakened by the work they did. Many did not reach the age of adulthood. Normally, master-sweepers bought five-year old boys, preferably thin ones, often from poor widows, orphanages or workhouses to work for them (Fulford 37). The boy described in the poem was also sold by his parents: “They clothed me in the clothes of death, And taught me to sing the notes of woe” (Blake line 7-8). The “clothes of death” could be seen as a symbol for his work clothes and therefore for his possible early death, because of the bad work conditions. The pronoun “they” presents his parents but also the whole society who did nothing against the harshness of