Blake displays duality as a strong theme of The Songs of Innocence and Experience by
contrasting poems under the same title and subject. In comparing the two
“Chimney Sweeper” poems, Blake ties religion within the conflicts between
innocence and experience.
Within both poems, the children speak of their woes but the
first seems to be ignorant that there could be any other life for him. When he
sees another child, Tom Dacre cry because his head has been “shav’d”, he
comforts him, not fully understanding the other terrors around him (6). There
is then imagery of other sweepers dying and “lock’d up in coffins” (12).
Instead of being terrified or sad, the child believes that the sweepers are set
free by an angel. This angel then tells Tom, that “if he’d be a good boy, /
He’d have God for his father & never want joy” (19, 20). Blake links the
boy’s ignorance and idealism to religion by showing that the boy trusts that
this is the life he must lead. There is no need for joy because he will one day
be brought to heaven.
The occupation of a chimney sweep is hazardous and many died
either in accidents or because of their blackened lungs. The boy from the first
poem doesn’t understand these dangers, but instead trusts that he must continue
working everyday and he “need not fear harm” because God will eventually take
care of him (24).
The second child, lives a similar life, and yet takes a
different stance on religion. He resents his mother and father in their absence
while they’re at church because he was once happy in ignorant but he has been
taught that his life isn’t one of happiness. He has no false positivity but is
openly angry at his parents and God for the life they have given him. By
blaming “God & his Priest & King” for making “up a heaven of our misery”,
the child shows his indignation towards religion (11, 12).
The differences between the two poems display Blake’s
opinions on religion. In the first poem, ignorance is linked with the belief in
God while the disbelief is tied to experience. In doing this, Blake shows that religion
not only hides truth, but deceives the innocent as well.
I agree that religion is an important theme in both the 'Innocence' and 'Experience' versions of "The Chimney Sweeper." Just to expand your point a little further, faith plays an important role for the chimney sweeper in the first poem. In a world where there is no mobility, and one is stuck in the position they are put into, religion is the only way some people will every experience something positive to look forward to. In the 'Innocence' poem, religion is portrayed as the means for a desperate child to experience some positivity. In the 'Experience' poem, on the other hand, religion is important for the parents. In the second poem, the boy chimney sweeper seems to have lost his innocence and naiveté, and can no longer rely on religion to comfort him. Instead his parents turn to religion to possibly justify their choice to sell their child into the chimney sweep industry. The chimney sweepers parents have reverted to their childhood innocence in order to live with the sad life they forced their child into. The use of religion in the second poem is also very ironic, because people who pray and attend church are typically perceived as being moral and virtuous people. The parents in the second chimney sweeper poem are not, considering they exploited their child's labor.
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