The Little Black Boy, London, The Little Vagabond and The Chimney Sweeper Essay Example

evil, dark and sinful whereas 'white' symbolising angelic, innocent, pure and rich, "my soul is white", "silver hair".In the sixth stanza he yet again compares back and whites. "When I from black and he from white cloud free," compares black and whites in a metaphorical way. He also uses clouds as if they are equally close to God and to show that everyone has an equal chance of going to heaven.

I believe Blake's overall message in this poem is that both black and white people are just the same despite their skin colour they are 'the same on the inside'. "London" is one of his most famous pieces of poetry from his 'Songs of Experience'. It is written in the first person.In the first stanza, Blake says, "charter'd street". This can be understood in a political and economical way.

This is because Blake perceived London as a place where there was a lack of freedom. Also, his friend, Thomas Paine, thought that royalty was to blame for this because of their control of the trade in London's docks made it look like clock work on the, "charter'd Thames". All of these made life for children abysmal. "I wander". Tells us that he has no real destination.

The phrase "mind-forged manacles" shows us that people cannot or were not allowed to think for themselves.What did happen was that children were sold by their parents to make money. Boys could have been sold to a chimneysweep from the age of four. They had to climb up chimneys, often with a fire at the bottom to keep them moving.

They often died at the age of eight

due to bone deformation and smoke inhalation. Girls were often sold to brothels and had to work as prostitutes, "youthful Harlot". You get the feeling from the poem that Blake can feel and 'hear' the children crying out for help, "How the chimney sweeper's cry". Blake had a very anti church persona.He blames the church for not aiding the poor children in their troubles. This is shown in the penultimate stanza, "church appals".

Furthermore, he thinks that the parents and the church are evil because it says "black'ning", but also because it was the time of the industrial revolution so it was also black from pollution. Blake blamed royalty for the poor conditions of the young soldiers as it was royalty who gave the final say as to go to war and are therefore responsible for the deaths of these young soldiers, "Runs in blood down palace walls".And blights with plagues the Marriage-Hearse. ", tries to portray the image that in those days if you got married you would probably die from an STD. This was because a man went to a brothel and received a sexually transmitted disease.

Which would then be passed onto his wife through them having sex. This could lead onto giving the child of that marriage a disease "Blasts the new-born infant's tear". This poem's rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, which gives the effect of a marching band and to say that London has a rhythmic beat like a clock ticking.Blake's poem "The Little Vagabond" is written in the first person.

Blake was very anti-church and often displayed this in his work. During the late 18th and early 19th century, children

were often homeless, they therefore had to sleep on the streets or find somewhere to go. The poem emphasises these two points by saying, in the first stanza, "the Church is cold". The church is uncaring and is therefore cruel in not letting the Little Vagabond in. Also during this period, water was not safe to drink so people drank beer; even children drank weak beer or ale.

It is shown that, in this poem, the Little Vagabond knew where he felt wanted, "I can tell where I am used well". "The Ale-house is healthy ; pleasant ; warm" shows us that he thought the ale house is more caring and affectionate that the Church. He used the tripling technique here to try and emphasise his point that the Little Vagabond was being turned away from church. Finally, "The Chimney Sweeper" in 'The Songs Of Innocence' shows many poetical techniques such as repetition which is shown in the first stanza "'weep! ' 'weep! '".This emphasises the point that children hated what there parents did to alter their lives such as selling them, "my father sold me".

The poem itself can tell us something in its length. This is that Blake may think of chimney-sweepers as 'innocent' as supposed to it being work 'experience' so he chooses to write more in 'The Songs Of Innocence' rather than The Songs Of Experience". Blake's poem "The Chimney Sweeper" but in "The Songs Of Experience", is very similar in the way he tries to emphasise his points using poetical techniques.The metaphor "clothes of death" suggests the clothes in which he will later die. In the first stanza, "A little black

thing among the snow:" means the chimney sweeper who is covered in soot is standing in the snow while people, who could well be his parents, go into the warm church. In the second stanza, he says he "smil'd among the winter snow:" and "taught me to sing the notes of woe.

", telling us that although he is cold and outside, he puts on a bray face and sings to himself to cheer himself up.In conclusion, throughout Blake's poems he uses quite a few poetical techniques to illustrate and emphasise his problem with the world around him. This was that he thought the world was not trying to help poor children, but instead hindering them. Blake showed in his poems many different themes, such as slavery, child labour, poor health and many other problems.

In his poem "London", he displayed his thoughts on the lack of freedom, in his poem "The Little Black Boy", he discussed the problems children faced about slave trade and child labour.