Chimney Sweeper

Little Vagabond

London

Holy Thursday

POEMS BY BLAKE & OTHER ROMANTICS

William Blake * William Wordsworth * Gordon Lord Byron * Samuel Taylor Coleridge

ANALYSED AND SET TO MUSIC BY J. M. SCHROEDER

Song

Introduction (I)

Introduction (E)

Spring

Human Abstract

The Tyger

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The Solitary Reaper

She Walks in Beauty

When We Two Parted

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* Blake 1757-1827*

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THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER    from Songs of Experience, 1794, by William Blake
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The poem describes how a chimney sweeper boy copes with his and his fellows' miserable fate. His naive, innocent way of accepting child-labour as a God-given duty produces a strong ironical effect and reinforces the bitterness of BLAKE'S implicit social criticism. *1*

structure

(1) introduction, first-person speaker in the rôle of a young chimney sweeper boy;  by your [chimneys] the reader is addressed and "involved"; (2) - (5) the "story" of Tom Dacre's dream (dream as a means to flee from, or bear, the miserable life); (6) conclusion, "we"- perspective linking the speaker's and Tom Dacre 's fate, "moral": doing duty excludes harm.

lexemes

Predominantly, concrete terms are used (reflecting child-like perception: the "grasping" of phenomena is a typical step in children's learning), with the exception of duty (6) which is a typical concept, and model of behaviour, of the adult world; the naive use of this term creates irony. A strange kind of "initiation" into the world of the adults is the "practical" shaving (2,2) as the "practical" step into child-labour.

Negative aspects of the boys' life and labour: (1) ...my mother died I was very young, my father sold me (personal misery, poverty), ... my tongue [/] Could scarcely cry (young age + pain), weep...(sadness; see under language), ...chimneys I sweep ("professional" task or skill), soot (black residue in chimneys even found in the boys' beds); (2) little Tom (age), cried (pain, suffering, age), shav'd (s.a.), bare (a feature of the boys' outward appearance), soot (dirt; s.a.), spoil (blacken, stain); (3) lock'd up, coffins of black (hopeless living conditions); (4) coffins; (5) bags (for tools); (6) dark (beginning of daily working routine), bags, brushes, work (aspects of work), cold (atmosphere, living conditions etc.), fear harm (fear of punishment).

Contrast is provided by the following items: (2) curl'd like a lamb's back (bright colour, innocence), white hair (hyperbole: fair or blonde hair); (3) quiet (vs. cry); (4) Angel, (white, aloft, in the fresh air, free to move, heavenly creature: salvation from the bitter lot), bright (white, golden) key ... opened... free (liberation, freedom); a green plain (place) leaping, run (playful activities), laughing (joy), wash, river, shine (cf. sooty world above), Sun (cf. cold above); (5) naked and white (innocence, cleanness), rise (elevation from their lowly position in real life); clouds (white, fluffy, soft objects in the sky; heavenly "seats" of angels), sport (joyful activity), wind (cf. the hot air etc. in the chimneys), God for his father (cf. his real father in 1); (6) happy and warm (ironical contrast to the sad and cold life etc.).

The choice of words is child-like, simple, partly colloquial in places: [']weep ... (1); the boy isn't able to pronounce /swi:p/ or simply speaks Cockney dialect *2*(sad connotation of the word; s.a.); (2) Theres... (simple introductory phrase), Hush (interjection: be quiet!); change of tense in (4,3) from past to present (typical of less educated speakers); (6) got with our bags and our brushes to work (coll.).

repetition
weep weep weep weepexpresses the monotony of the boy's work and life (sweeping and weeping; see interpretation under lexemes and language).Initial And..., Then..., especially in (3) to (6): child-like telling of events; in the phrases introduced by So/so in (1,4), (2,2), (3,1) and (6,1) the boys seem to jump to rather naive conclusions, thinking about their situation, the consequence being that they put up with their bitter fate and return to "business as usual". Ironically, the conclusion drawn in (6,4) is the moral which, after it has been implanted in their minds by society, helps them to sustain their self-respect and social value. The if-clauses in (3,3) and (6,4) associate positive preconditions (good boy, duty) to positive consequences; the latter ones are, however, virtually nothing but the absence of  negative aspects; psychologically or paedagogically speaking, this is a negative way of reinforcing desirable behaviour (ironical effect).

capitalisation
Angel, Sun, God(positive/good powers)

sound/metre
simplest form of end-rhyme pattern (cf. nursery rhymes): couplets AA-BB.;
anapaests within a basically tetra-metrical pattern make language very lively (cf. the bubbling speech of a child "blabbing away").

atmosphere
partly sad, partly "happy" and astonishingly "relaxed" (corresponding to BLAKE'S concept of innocence; innocent acceptance of fate; irony)

transfer
Child labour - a phenomenon of the past?; Modern versions of child labour and society's hypocritical rôle (children as stars in the field of sports, film etc.)

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*1* cf. OSTRIKER, p. 883

*2* cf. KEYNES, p. 136 * top of analysis * BIBLIOGRAPHY * top of page

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THE LITTLE VAGABOND    from Songs of Experience, 1794, by William Blake
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In this poem the first-person speaker is a boy "from the streets" who gives his notion of an alterna-tive existence. Displaying some experience of the morals of the adult world, and of church as one of society's major educational institutions, he sharply criticizes the status quo and imagines Church as a place of profane joy. Sarcasm and irony *1* are tangible throughout the poem. It "was thought too subversive of authority and was omitted" *2*  in the first edition of the collection.

structure

(1) introduction: juxtaposition of Church and Ale-house; (2) tables turned - a new chance for Church? (3) change of Parson and dame Lurch (4) climax: reunion of God and Devil

lexemes

Wordfields can be grouped around social rôles and institutions *3*: The Little Vagabond is a young "stray cat" of society (see stray in 2,4) with no home, job etc.(cf. the chimney sweepers, who have some sort of employment at least); his primary link to society is his Mother (1). Probably by former experience, he has some knowledge about Church; hisfeeling is that it is cold (1) both as a place and as the institution of restrictive religious education. Mundane Amusement etc. (see below under Ale-house)is neither possible here nor in heaven (1,4), so many children wish from the Church to stray (2,4). He knows the functions of the Parson (3,1) and dame Lurch (3,3f.), the school-mistress *4*, who sets an example as a church-goer and has the children "follow the rules" (e.g. fasting in Lent), prompting gossip about "obstreperous" children (bandy [s.o's name about]), exposing them to embarassment, and ordering corporal punishment (birch = beat with twigs    from a birch-tree).

The Ale-house (1) is the adult world's legitimate place of joy and amusement, the boy either naively or sarcastically remarks that it is healthy & pleasant & warm. Other aspects associated with an ale-house are transferred to the boy's notion of an "ideal" Church: (2) Ale (stimulating and "warming" effect), a pleasant fire... (tangible heat as opposed to the fire of candle light), activities: regale (provide with food and drink, and/or entertainment), sing and drink in (2) and (3), kiss in (4).

Positive feelings are associated with the ale-house atmosphere: (3) [be] happy as birds in the spring (note sexual connotations: behaviour of animals in the mating season); (4) children .. pleasant and happy.

The collocation of mundane and ecclesiastical elements has an ironical effect which for some readers may verge on blasphemy: (2) fire  + souls, sing + pray, (3) preach + drink + sing. Ambiguity serves the same purpose: (2) [souls] to regale (s.a. physical aspect of  nourishment vs. in elevated diction: give spiritual pleasure), sing and pray (referring to drinking songs or psalms?); (3) preach (sermon or even bawdy talk?) + drink (Communion wine or ale?) + sing (s.a.); (4) God like a father...; it can hardly be a sign of fatherly responsibility tolet children participate in this kind of exhilaration;  rejoicing (jubilating in a spiritual or earthly sense?) to see .. [ / ] His children as pleasant and happy as he (God in a state of profane happiness?); kiss him and give him both drink and apparel; would he even invite the evil one to join in the celebration of the holy service? (apparel  < lit. > =  decorative elements of the priest's garment, or the garment itself, i.e. the cassock or chasuble.)

repetition

The apostrophe Dear Mother, dear Mother reminds of a repeated call for help; Dear, however, sounds rather over-emphatic or formal for a vagabond child in this context (irony). Repeatedly, activities of semantically ambiguous qualities are ironically referred to different characters and aspects: children (2) and Parson (3) would sing; the priest (3) might ... drink, the Devil (4) would be offered a drink; the Ale-house (1) is pleasant, the children and God would be pleasant in (4); the children 'd be as happy as birds (simile in 3) and as happy as [God] in (4).

capitalisation

of  key words (social rôles, institutions etc.)

grammar/syntax
The enumeration of ideas within repetitive And...patterns is typical of a child's language and spontaneous speech. The fact that we can still make out the child behind the acrimony of speech makes the criticism even bitterer.Other elements make plain and credible that the boy has a sharp sense of reality and is capable of using irony and sarcasm as rhetorical devices:
negative aspects are given in present or future tense (1), positive imagination is expressed in conditional mode (would..., might...) in (2) - (4); the Little Vagabond demonstrates quite complex thinking by using relatively
complex sentence structures: conditional clause in the first two lines of (2), introduced by if + would (ironically assuming readiness of the Church or the boy's "polite" request) + subsequent main clause + subordinate clause
(Nor..). In (3) the structural pattern of the conditional sentence is carried on, with an embedded relative clause in the present tense; (4) contains a participle clause within the main clause + subordinate adversative clause introduced by But...

sound/metre
An interesting aspect is the "alternating" use of closed and open couplets, corresponding with the train of thought, from (1) to (4).
Predominantly anapaestic tetrametre is used (lively, "bubbling" speech).

atmosphere
"Ale-house" atmosphere (effervescent life: singing, drinking, joking, cheering etc.).

transfer
Children in today's cardboard cities, city streets and slums; the helplessness of parents and society. The rôle and function of institutionalised Church. Tendencies in modern church: change to a place of entertainment? Reflect on the well-known quotation from the Bible: "suffer [ = have] the little children to come unto me."

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*1* see definitions of MORNER/RAUSCH, p. 113, 194

*2* KEYNES, p. 150

*3* cf. RLE, p. 33

*4* cf. KEYNES, p. 150 * top of analysis * BIBLIOGRAPHY * top of page

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LONDON    from Songs of Experience, 1794, by William Blake
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Literally looking into the streets of England's capital BLAKE provides a very gloomy view of the mental state of society and presents pictures of social injustice, and expresses outspoken and bitter protest "against the evil effect of industrial civilization upon the life of the individual." *1*

structure
(1) introduction (place, general observation); (2) effects of mental slavery on all individuals; (3) - (4) exemplification (individuals, institutions); (4) epidemic infection

lexemes
London; connotations: capital, palaces, centre of political power, culture etc. Various lexemes directly or indirectly express individual pain, suffering etc.: (1) marks of weakness... woe (visible expressions of distress, misery, sadness etc.) *2*; (2) cry (ambiguity: shout of anger etc.vs. cry of pain etc.), cry of  fear, ban (prohibition causing frustration, pain); (3) chimney sweepers cry (cf. 5.3.1); hapless (<poet.>: unlucky; doomed to die) [soldier], sigh (of death), blood (sign of physical injury, death); curse (multiple meaning: swearword used as a reaction to pain, verbal abuse directed at a person or object; < fig.> severe disease etc.).
Words etc. referring to places and institutions are: (1) charter'd streets... Thames (note irony: charters are documents granting rights to individuals or organisations; practically, they restrict other people's rights of movement, trade etc.; the Thames is naturally confined to its banks *3*); (3) blackning Church (blacken = give the colour of darkness, night, cold, death, mourning etc.); Palace walls (representing constitutional monarchy etc.); (4) midnight streets (time, place of legal and illegal amusement, place of crime, child-prostitution etc.).

metaphors
In (2) the mental and emotional states of individuals become audible cries, or even outcries of protest or anger (s.a.); the causal factors are mind-forg'd manacles (literally: means of  physical restraint made by the human brain; i.e. social laws and other rules etc. restricting freedom of thought, imagination etc.). In (3) the lot of the Chimney sweepers becomes so very evident (literally: audible) that even ignorant Church feels "obliged" to show a reaction: it blackens (s.a.) and is appalled, i.e. shocked at the sight of the misery etc. *4*, . The Soldiers['] audible sign of suffering, his sigh (s.a.), adopts a different sensory quality (colour, visibility) and literally stains the place from which war orders are issued, i..e. he blames monarchy etc. behind the facades of the Palace walls for his fate. In (4) the young prostitute's curse (s.a.) infects both her own baby (blasts... =  makes the tears dry and die; cf. symptoms of gonorrhea), and passes on the disease (e.g. epidemic syphilis) to the potential bridegroom and father; the wedding coach is turned into a hearse; thus marriage as an institutionalised form of coexistence is considered to be doomed, too.

repetition
In every...: showing extent of misery; cry, hear: "audibility" of misery (s.a.)

capitalisation
of nouns denoting individuals and institutions.

sound/metre
Absence of any playful variation of metre and end-rhyme (serious matter, protest). atmosphere         sad, gloomy (cf. subjects, emotions, colours)

transfer
Looking behind the facades of today's capitals...Ills of (modern) society (technocracy, stress, war, crime, child prostitution, Aids etc.) and the suffering individual.

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*1* KEYNES, p. 151

*2* BLAKE echoes the Bible, Ezekiel 9:4, where God makes similar observations in Jerusalem and also uses the words marks, sigh, and cry; cf. KERMODE et al, VOL. II, p. 26; cf. THE HOLY BIBLE, p.702

*3* cf. KERMODE et al., VOL. II, p. 26, KEYNES, p. 150; In front of the Tower Hill monument (in Trinity Square, London), a plaque refers to a "charter"as follows: "This site formed part of the Tower Liberty, an area of land originally kept open for the defence of the Tower of London. In 1687 a charter was granted giving privileged status to those living within its confines. Amongst them the freedom from the jurisdiction of the City of London. Although the last vestiges of these privileges were finally dissolved in 1894, the tradition of the beating of the bounds takes place every third year on Ascension Day." Below this text, the bronze plaque shows the area around the Tower of London with 31 numbered stones which "mark the liberty boundary".

*4* critics point to another meaning: appalls =  "drapes in a pall", i.e. covers it with a shroud-like cloth put over a dead body or coffin; cf. KERMODE et al., VOL. II, p. 27; cf. OSTRIKER, p. 888.

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HOLY THURSDAY   to Songs of Experience, 1794, by William Blake
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On Holy Thursday "some six thousand of the poorest children from the charity schools of London [had to march] into St. Paul's ... for a compulsory exhibition of their piety and gratitude to their patrons. *1* In this poem BLAKE, who witnessed this annual event of former times, attacks society's hypocritical attitude towards poverty and its youngest victims.

structure
(1) hypocritical charity in a rich country; (2) poor children - poor country; (3) a world of no future perspectives; (4) an ideal world

lexemes
Title: day in the Holy Week, associated with splendid processions and alms-giving. In (1) - (2) words etc. with "positive" connotations are: (1) holy thing (something sanctioned by God), rich and fruitful land (monitary and natural wealth), fed (charitable action); (2) song, song of joy. In the contrastive context given they all receive a negative, ironical meaning, spoiling the image of Holy Thursday (s.a.) proper. In (1) - (2) sharp contrast is provided by: (1) Babes reducd (hyperbolic: small children made even smaller or less important), misery, fed (s.a.) with cold and usur[i]-ous hand, i.e. by people or institutions which are not concerned emotionally (cold), and take advantage of them (child-labour; gain of publicity, s.a.); (2) trembling cry (of a weak, sad voice), poor, land of poverty (the whole society). In (3) the speaker reflects on his observations on a wholly metaphorical level: the sun as the source of light and heat, the basis for life and growth, does never shine (hyperbole), i.e. there is a lack of physical, mental, and emotional care; their fields (sign of organized cultivation) are bleak (unsheltered from winds etc.) and bare (fruitless), i.e. there is a discouraging future perspective with hardly a chance to escape the misery: their ways are filled with thorns (painful obstacles); eternal winter is a hyperbolic metaphor of hopelessness (no chance of spring). (4) provides contrast to (3): a place of eternal sunshine and rainfall (hyperbolic: where-e'er...) provides a basis for a thriving society in which basic physical needs (hunger) are satisfied, and in which the mind is relieved of the "spectre of poverty".

repetition
of single words: holy in (1) (cf. title); here the word is linked to negative aspects (ironical placement); (2) cry + song, song + joy (s.a. holy); in (4)  poverty is repeated within the idealistic picture (as a reminder of danger?). Parallel Is this... (1), Is that... (2) introduces visual (see)and audible (cry) aspects (close and far). (3) And their... adds one negative view to another, increasing the weight of argument each time, preparing the conclusion in (3,4). Parallelisms (And their sun... [ / ] where-e'er the sun...) intensify the contrast between (3) and (4).

syntax
Rhetorical questions are answered in (2,4) by a simple affirmative sentence (exclamation) as a "logical conclusion" (s.a.). Parallel structures + simple concluding pattern are found in (3); does + verb - pattern is used for emphasis in (3) and (4).

sound/metre
no end-rhyme in (2); cf. disharmonious context (weird song, poverty);
variation in (2,4) and (3,4) puts strong emphasis on "conclusive" It is... (cf. It's...).

atmosphere
cold, gloomy in (1) - (3), warm, positive in (4).

transfer
Rich and poor ... a just society? Is charity hypocritical?

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*1* KEYNES, p. 139 * top of analysis * BIBLIOGRAPHY * top of page

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