Several years ago, there was a report on 21st Century, which says:
“Life is fast and poetry is slow.
But a new scheme is bringing the two together….
In a cultural exchange between the world's two most popular languages,
shanghai metro line 1 and 2 are displaying Chinese versions
of poems by four famous English poets”.
One of the poems displayed on Shanghai subway is “Auguries of Innocence”
which starts with the following beautiful lines:
These lines are quite philosophical and very popular.
The poem is composed by William Blake who is considered a seminal figure
as both a poet and a visual artist of the Romantic Age.
William Blake was born in London in 1757 in a hosiery businessman’s family,
and died in London in 1827 at the age of 70.
He was a poet, philosopher, engraver,
and one of the earliest major English Romantic poets.
He once earned his living by engraving illustrations for publishers.
He got married at the age of 24. The couple were not rich
but they remained close to each other throughout their life.
Although very poor in his old age,
Blake was admired by a group of young artists,
whose friendship gave him some consolation.
Blake’s important poems were published in three poetic collections;
they are Poetical Sketches, Songs of Innocence, and Songs of Experience.
Poetical Sketches, published in 1783, is the first volume of poems of William Blake.
It is a collection of youthful
verse with notes of joy, laughter and love.
He shows a contempt for the rule of reason,
and a strong sympathy with the fresh spirit of Elizabethan poetry.
Songs of Innocence, published in 1809, is a lovely volume of poems,
mostly presenting a world of delight, harmony, peace and love.
The poems praise the beauty of nature and the innocence of the child.
In this volume, Blake broke completely with the traditions of the 18th century.
He experimented in meter and rhyme and introduced bold metrical innovations
which could not be found in the poetry of his contemporaries.
Songs of Experience was published in 1794.
This volume of poetry painted a different world,
a world of misery, poverty, and distress,
and showed the sufferings of the miserably poor.
It reflected the dark side of human life.
There are two poems both entitled “The Chimney Sweeper”.
One is from Songs of Innocence;
the other is from Songs of Experience.
They are both good examples to show Blake’s art of poetry and his political thoughts.
“The Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Innocence
is set against the dark background of child labor
that was prominent in England in the late 18th and early 19th century.
In the 18th century, small boys of no more than 4 or 5 years old,
were often employed to climb up the narrow chimney flues and clean them,
collecting the soot in bags due to their small body size.
Such boys, sometimes were sold to the master sweepers by their parents.
They were miserably treated by their masters and often suffered malnutrition,
disease and physical deformity.
Now, please look at the first stanza.
From this stanza, we could see that the narrator is a child chimney sweeper.
His mother died and he was sold by his father when he was very little.
The words weep! 'weep! 'weep! ' are open to multiple interpretations.
First the word “weep” could be seen as
the word “sweep”with the initial letter “S” being omitted,
thus it becomes a demonstration of the young age of the child narrator;
he’s too young to pronounce the word properly;
secondly, “weep” itself could be seen as an individual word,
meaning “cry with sadness”, and three “weep”s in succession
just further highlight the sadness of the life of the child.
The phrase “in soot I sleep” directly points out the poor living conditions of the child.
Now, please pay attention to the second stanza.
“Tom Dacre” is the name of some acquaintant child chimney sweeper of the child narrator,
and the name could be seen as a general reference,
capable of representing any child chimney sweeper.
“Lamb” is the symbol of innocence in Christianity;
the head being “shaved” indicates the child’s being exploited and repressed as an innocent lamb;
“the soot cannot spoil your white hair”
means that although the child body may be stained by the soot,
his spirit remains clean.
Now, please look at the third stanza.
The dream of the child sweeper Tom is an important part of the poem.
The description of Tom’s dream extends from stanze 3 to stanza 5.
In this stanza, Tom dreams of other chimney sweepers being locked in black coffins.
“coffins of black” is a metaphor.
“black coffins” are compared to the chimney;
Doing the cleaning inside the chimneys is like being locked inside the coffin.
By this metaphor,
the cruel exploitative nature of child labor
and the deathlike life of the child sweepers are revealed.
Now, please look at the forth stanza.
The forth stanza goes on telling about Tom’s dream.
He dreamed that the angel from heaven opened the coffins and freed all the child sweepers.
Then, they are bathed in the river and become shiningly clean,
and play happily “on the green plain”,
“leaping”, “laughing”, and “run”.
The beautiful dream expressed Tom’s good wishes and his belief in God;
however, liberation by angel is nothing but a dream.
No matter how beautiful Tom’s dream is, it could never come true.
The coffins may represent deaths;
being freed from coffins by an angel
may well indicate that children are taken by the angel to the heaven.
Now, please look at stanza five.
Stanza 5 still tells about Tom’s dream.
Following the idea expressed in stanza four,
this stanza clearly states that in Tom’s dream,
all the children are taken to heaven “naked and white”,
“They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind”,
and all their bags are “left behind”.
Being “naked and white” allow for different interpretations.
On one hand, it may mean the children are washed clean by the angel;
on the other hand, it may indicate that the children are so entirely exploited
that they get nothing left for them but death.
“bags being left behind”
indicates the wish for a complete escape from the dehumanizing work and the sad life.
“the angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy, He'd have God for his father”
reveals the deceiving nature of religion.
Obviously, the idea of “angel” and “God” plays an evil role
in cheating the children into submitting to the unjust treatment,
and thus becomes the accomplice of the social oppression.
Now, please focus on the last stanza.
In Stanza 6, the poet’s focus shifts from Tom’s dream back to the reality.
Tom and other children awoke and got up to gather their bags and brushes
to work very early “in the dark”.
But what’s different is, Tom became “happy and warm”
because he was made to believe that “ if all do their duty they need not fear harm”;
once again the hypocrisy and cruelty of religion represented by “angel” and “God”
is emphasized in a ironical way.
And Tom’s belief also indicates he and the other children are in the state of innocence
and unaware that they are victims.
And the sharp contrast between the white, clean and happy world of dream
and the dark, filthy and cold reality
also helps stress the evilness of the real world.
To sum up,
the poem is generally a protest against
the dark and corrupt British society of the late 18th and the early 19th century.
At that time, children were forced to work at a very young age and lived a miserable life.
And religion played a part of complicity with other institutions in the society
in exploiting the children and fooling them into submitting to their miserable life.
The tone of this poem is implicit and ironic. (end)