In William Blake's two versions of the poem "The Chimney Sweeper" he uses a strong tone, interesting imagery, and irony to bring the two different stories to life.
The tone in both poems holds a very quiet and sad tone to play off the child's innocence and show you what particular things seem to bring them trust in the world. Though in the 1789 poem the child is on his own with the other group of children the only real adult figures he has left is God. Yet towards the end of this particular poem the tone does a total 180 and he seems to become more aware and hopefully towards the world that he is living in. The angel coming down to help his lost friends brought a sense of the child's innocence back into the poem, because though he may seem to be in a hard place he still hold this sense of naive attitude toward the idea that God will safe him from all things bad. Unlike in the 1794 poem that shows a much different side of the story for most of the children working like this but is really showing what the other himself feels about the idea of child labor within the Chimneys. The tone continues to be sad and show a felling of dismay and misunderstanding towards the parents and what they are doing. The lack of trust that his poem shows to anyone beyond himself his shown through the words '.....,"......"........
In both poems the image of God is a key piece to the entirety of the poem, but rather then God holding the same meaning to both the children they hold completely different meanings. In the first version of the poem published in 1789, God takes them away from all the harm and horrible things that are happening to these poor children that can't help do anything to help themselves. Line 20 says "He'd have God for his father and never want joy." This shows that no matter the situation that has been happening around them their father, though they might not have one by blood, would be God himself and that is all that they needed to have a fulfilling life even with the horrible job. Angels earlier in the poem were sent to set 4 of his friends free from the "coffins of black" that they had been locked in. Now they are playing around in Heaven, by stating this the lack of fear the boys have towards death as a child rather a sense of hope in the after life is readily portrayed. The innocence that death is okay because God will be there and Heaven is filled with "Sunshine and rainbows" is the bases of this poem, but that is not at all the case in the poem that was published in 1794 who uses the image of God as a source of misery to the children rather then a hopeful outlook to the afterlife in Heaven. The Child still has parental sources in there life but they are to busy praising God to help keep that child out of harms way. Just because the boy doesn't show the parents the ideal picture of dismay towards his job they believe that God has blessed them, but the child already knows that the parents have brought him closer to death through the work he has been doing. The innocence this child once held has disappeared rather then progressed like in the previous poem, the child no longer holds a sense of being naive towards the unknown. God is the cause of his misery rather then his hope towards a happy ending, the world has turned him dark. In many religions God is who created the Heaven and Earth the person that chooses your so said circumstances that you must live with, yet in this case he was dealt a worse hand then most children. With the Child's knowledge of how God is the creator of all things good and evil he portrays God as a man of Evil and the cause of total misery. His feelings towards the word his living in though he still laughs and smiles like everybody else shows his view of the live he lives.
Irony is the key to the complex attitude throughout the world of literature and that happens to be very present within these two poems. In the very first version the ideal image would be the child has this sense of hope towards his future and getting away from the place he is currently in, but rather he looks much farther then that all the way to what will happen to him after death.
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