NAVIGATION:

Index of Dr. Weller's Class Materials

Index of English 341 Materials

Notes for a lecture on Blake's Chimney Sweeper Poems "The Chimney Sweeper" (p.128) from Songs of Experience

• The voice of Experience
• The street cry
• Our question
• Against original Sin
• The violated values: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

"The Chimney Sweeper" (p. 121) from Songs of Innocence

• Because the innocents are innocent, you have to think of the poem as an extended example of dramatic irony
• "my father sold me"
• the reality of chimney sweeping
• Dacre, d'acre -- the cultural effect of industrialism
• "So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm"