THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER - WILLIAM BLAKE- BASIC ENGLISH NOTES - SEMESTER II - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

 

THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER

WILLIAM BLAKE

Comprehension Questions

Answer the following questions

1) What is the theme of the poem?

Ans: The theme of "The Chimney Sweeper" misery, hope and death.

 

2) What is the tone of the poem “The Chimney Sweeper”?

Ans: The tone of "The Chimney Sweeper" is one of gentle innocence and trust.

 

3) Why is Tom Dacre compared to a sheep?

Ans: Tom Dacre compared to a sheep's back represents two things. He had thick hair in light of the fact that there was no one to deal with him. And, similar to the sheep, the child was innocent.

 

4) Who is Tom Dacre?

Ans: Tom was a young chimney sweeper like the narrator.

 

5) Why does Tom Dacre crying?

Ans: Tom Dacre cried because his head’s hair was being shaved off.

 

6) Who is “I” in the first line of the poem “The Chimney Sweeper”?

Ans: “I” in the first line of the poem "The Chimney Sweeper” is “The speaker”, the boy who is a Chimney Sweeper.

7) Who sold the speaker in the poem “The Chimney Sweeper”?

Ans: Speaker’s father sold the speaker in the poem "The Chimney Sweeper".

 

8) What does “my tongue could scarcely cry” mean/signify?

Ans: “My tongue could scarcely cry” signifies that childhood is not a time to cry.

 

9) What does Tom see in his dream?

Ans: Tom saw that huge number of sweepers was locked up in the coffins of black and afterward an Angel who had a bright key and he opened the coffins and set them all free. They were playing, running and snickering and they were washing in a river and shinning in the sun.

 

10) Who has a bright key?

Ans: An angel has a bright key.

 

Answer the following questions

1) Critically analyse the poem “The Chimney Sweeper”.

Ans: William Blake features the stunning conditions where the young chimney sweeps exist, as boys scarcely mature enough to try and say sweep rather than "weep," are taken into administration. The poem shows up as a feature of Songs of Innocence and there is a particular acknowledgment by the reader that the young men live amidst awful encounters. The Innocence variant uncovers that the boys don't have a clue about any better and acknowledge their circumstance; even little Tom Dacre is "happy and warm." Tom's dream of the boys who are locked up in coffins of black is meant to horrify reader. The angel releases those boys with the bright key. The imagery appears to get away from the seven year old narrator however isn't lost on the reader who sees, despite the fact that it isn't said, just suggested, that these boys will proceed in these positions until they either pass on from sediment in their lungs or get too huge to fit up the chimneys. The boy is something to be supported at the same time, for these boys, there is no prize, but to keep doing "their duty." Failures to do so will without a doubt result in the harm, the boys need to stay away from as they will be rebuffed on the off chance that they don't work effectively. Brutality to children was an unregulated and stunning social issue of the time; one which William Blake felt emphatically about.

 

Consequently, the subsequent rendition shows up in Songs of Experience. Here, the tone is taunting and critical. The little fellow is as yet the narrator, he actually acknowledges his circumstance to the point that the individuals who drive him to work, his folks. However, the boy is a lot shrewder and the incongruity of the circumstance doesn't get away from him in this adaptation as he can perceive that it is so opposing to, while boys endure as chimney sweeps. The boys in the previous adaptation are met by a heavenly messenger and in the last form; the narrator perceives just the misery. William Blake is able therefore to express his dissatisfaction with the situation and reveal how acceptance of a situation does not make it acceptable. 

 

2) Explain the conditions of the Chimney sweepers.

Ans: Children, from the beginning of time, have been apprenticed to blacksmiths, craftsmen, and other merchants whose substantial positions would now be considered totally unsatisfactory for them. During the Industrial Revolution, nonetheless, child labor became effective in a way that had never occurred, as towns detonated with production lines needing modest work. As creation blast, so too requested; also, as families moved from the field into the urban areas, the typical cost for basic items expanded even as the conditions declined an example unmistakable to us in enormous urban areas today. To have the option to bear the cost of lodgings near their work environments, parents would give their kids something to do regularly fourteen-hour days in coal mineshafts, processing plants, and the sky is the limit from there. The chimney sweepers portrayed in Blake's poem are an especially impactful outline of the issue, not just on the grounds that these were the absolute youngest laborers, but since the young chimney sweepers were blameless boys who didn't have an appropriate adolescence. They were sold by their parents when they were young. They needed to work in dark sooty chimneys and they would be covered in soot. Also, since their hair would get covered with soot, their heads would be shaved.

 

3) Critically examine the exploitation of the chimney sweepers.

Ans: William Blake was searing of what he saw as the harming outcomes of the advanced industrial economy. A long way from considering it to be a engine room of progress and flourishing, he viewed it as carrying broad torment and hopelessness to the least fortunate and generally helpless in the public eye. In the two poems by the name "The Chimney Sweeper," Blake centers around the exploitation of child labor and the harming impacts it has on the kids compelled to attempt to save themselves and their families from complete desperation. In the Songs of Innocence poem, we are acquainted with a helpless youthful starving stray sold into the chimney sweep exchange by his dad before he could scarcely talk. He educates us regarding the huge number of youthful chimney sweeps currently locked up in coffins of dark, an undeniable reference to how perilous it is for little youngsters to work around here.

 

It's terrible enough that he's the victim of exploitation, yet it's far worse. Blake's boy tune is here wealthy in significant considered social injustice and imbalance, human exploitation, and human misery. Elder seems appears to peep and voice itself through the much injured and furious fellow in the chimney sweeper who doesn't acknowledge his forlorn part with confidence in God and Christian ethical quality. All things considered, the poem stays a kid's melody. This is obvious in the graceful procedure that has an innocent quality in its straightforwardness of style and thought. The style of the poem is all as straightforward and persuading as possible stand up. The music of the poem is pleasant to get the ears effectively and to dive deep into the listener's heart. In this regard, both the Chimney-Sweeper poems have a similar perfection, straightforwardness, and resonance of a true child song. The poem, a lot more limited than its friend sonnet involves three refrains of four lines each. The lines are found to rhyme not uniformly as in the sister poem. Truth be told, a decent arrangement of varieties happens in the artist's plan of rhyming. While in the first stanza, the lines rhyme in the couplet, in the subsequent refrain and the third the other lines rhyme. Such a variety may have been liked by the poet to give the poem somewhat more unpredictable tone than the vast majority of his child songs.