The Chimney Sweeper | Analysis

Denne study guide hjælper dig med at analysere digtet “The Chimney Sweeper” af William Blake. Her finder du hjælp til de væsentligste ting, som er gode at have med i en analyse. Endelig får du også hjælp til at perspektivere digtet.

Præsentation af teksten

Titel: “The Chimney Sweeper: When my mother died I was very young”
Forfatter: William Blake
Udgivet i: Songs of Innocence
Udgivelsesår: 1789
Genre: Poesi

William Blake (1757-1827) var en engelsk kunstner, som både malede og skrev digte. Han er en af nøglepersonerne i den engelske romantik og beskæftigede sig oftest med temaer som Gud og menneskets eksistens. Blake skrev to digte med titlen "The Chimney Sweeper" og dette er det tidligste af dem fra samlingen Songs of Innocence.

Uddrag

Dette er et kort uddrag af vores analysehjælp:

The speaker

The speaker of the poem functions as a sort of narrator and describes himself in the first stanza as a chimney sweeper whose mother has died while he was an infant and whose father has sold him into work:

When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry “'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!”
So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep. (ll. 1-4)

Notice also that the chimney boy seems to address his adult clients or the employers through “your chimneys” which suggests the intended recipients of the poem are those who are partially responsible for child labour, the employers and the chimney owners.