Blog Post #11: Compare and Contrast Poetry Essay

William Blake's Poems "The Chimney Sweeper," convey an augmentation in the speaker's, a young chimney sweep, understanding of his parents' betrayal. Blake traces the boy's growth out of innocence and into a ",'heaven of [his] misery.'" in his use of lists and counter-point discussion of light and dark, black and white. This listing and reliance on binary oppositions, which demarcate a transition from immaturity to sobering maturation, illustrate Blake's increasingly bitter attitude towards the chimney sweep's situation.

Both Blake's 1794 and 1789 poems "The Chimney Sweeper," demonstrate a natural organization and trail of logic, following a path very similar to that of unfettered human thought. The tone behind this organization, seen clearly in Blake's lists, however, is drastically different between the two poems. The 1789 poem structures lists in an expected manner - point one, point two, and point three - which is very similar to the type of speech used when speaking to other people, people like "Dick,  Joe, Ned, and Jack," (11). The expected, calculated speech reinforces Blake's notion that the boy's are disillusioned in thinking that "if all do their duty, they need not fear harm." (24) The 1794, in contrast, is less measured and more emotionally driven. In describing the parents' false sense of reassurance, the boys cries, "[they] are gone to praise God & his Priest & King," (11) Blake's use of polysyndeton at this point in the poem illustrates the boy's bitter frustration about his parents' own disillusioned thoughts of innocence. The transition from the 1789 poem to the 1794 poem clearly marks a growth in the boys thinking, an evolution from innocence into understanding.

The binary opposition between the colors black and white is present in both of Blake's poems, but their connotations are vastly different. In the 1789 poem, the color white is clearly symbolic of hope, rebirth, and cleanliness; the words "naked and white," are the two most pertinent examples of this notion (17). The Angle is described as being a "bright," figure who come to tell they chimney sweeps of all there is that lies for them beyond the pains and labors that they face in the "dark" world they live in (13). This is a clear slight towards truth, however, the honest realization that the boy comes to is not quite as bright. (STOP)

Paired Poem Essay Reflection:

This prompt was our first exposure to a poetry compare and contrast essay, and it was not as intimidating as I thought it would be. Reading pages 41 through 57 before writing this essay was helpful in understanding how to organize my thoughts and approach the paired poetry essay, specifically regarding the writing of the thesis. When this type of essay was introduced, I was worried that it would be fat too easy to fall into the trap of working just with surface features and basic details without elaboration; especially when the amount of material we are working with doubles in quantity, it can be significantly more difficult to pull out and original, nuanced argument. While originality isn't necessarily immediately aligned with success on these essays - I'm sure they have been many original responses to this prompt that couldn't have scored higher than a two - it is always reassuring to feel like you are solving a puzzle when writing an essay; putting together the hidden, nuanced parts of an argument is really almost like a game, with time, your own knowledge, and your preparedness competing against you. Specifically, on my first draft of this essay, I did not win the battle against time. Unfortunately, this immediately drags down the value of my writing; although I felt confident in the thoughts I had and the way I was going to relate them, by not finishing, my trail of logic was hazy and my support was severely lacking. This mistake would likely result in my essay scoring a two. The first body paragraph still provides some support for my argument, but it is incomplete which significantly hurts the value of my writing. One significant goal that I need to set for myself is regarding time; I've noticed that, even though I now better understand what an effective, efficient thesis looks like, I spend too long on this part of the essay, trying to perfect it to set the right initial impression of my writing. In the future, I need to spend no more than five minutes writing this part of the essay so that I can move on and actually write an entire essay in the time provided. I know that once I address my time-management problems, it will be much easier to break into the 7-9 essay score range. Hopefully, my revision of this essay will allow me to tie together the thoughts and evidence that I was unable to work with because of time constraints.

Paired Poem Essay Revision:

William Blake's Poems "The Chimney Sweeper," convey an augmentation in the speaker's, a young chimney sweep, understanding of his parents' betrayal. Blake traces the boy's growth out of innocence and into a ",'heaven of [his] misery.'" in his use of lists and counter-point discussion of light and dark, black and white. This listing and reliance on binary oppositions, which demarcate a transition from immaturity to sobering maturation, illustrate Blake's increasingly bitter attitude towards the chimney sweep's situation.

Both Blake's 1794 and 1789 poems "The Chimney Sweeper," demonstrate a natural organization and trail of logic, following a path very similar to that of unfettered human thought. The tone behind this organization, seen clearly in Blake's lists, however, is drastically different between the two poems. The 1789 poem structures lists in an expected manner - point one, point two, and point three - which is very similar to the type of speech used when speaking to other people, people like "Dick,  Joe, Ned, and Jack," (11). The expected, calculated speech reinforces Blake's notion that the boy's are disillusioned in thinking that "if all do their duty, they need not fear harm." (24) The 1794, in contrast, is less measured and more emotionally driven. In describing the parents' false sense of reassurance, the boys cries, "[they] are gone to praise God & his Priest & King," (11) Blake's use of polysyndeton at this point in the poem illustrates the boy's bitter frustration about his parents' own disillusioned thoughts of innocence. The transition from the 1789 poem to the 1794 poem clearly marks a growth in the boys thinking, an evolution from innocence into understanding.

The binary opposition between the colors black and white is present in both of Blake's poems, but their connotations are vastly different. In the 1789 poem, the color white is clearly symbolic of hope, rebirth, and cleanliness; the words "naked and white," are the two most pertinent examples of this notion (17). The Angel is described as being a "bright," figure who comes to tell the chimney sweeps of all there is that lies for them beyond the pains and labors that they face in the "dark" world they live in (13). This is a clear slight towards truth, however, the honest realization that the boy comes to is not quite as bright. Blake's 1794 poem contrasts the white of the cold, winter snow with the the chimney sweep, a "little black thing," dressed in the garments of death (1). Although pure and fair in contrast to the suit-stained sweep, this bright snow does not yield the joyous, enlightening truth that the first poem seemed to promise; the blinding white of the snow is more reminiscent of "a heaven of [the sweeps'] misery." (12) The boy, here, is implicating God in his suffering, tainting the purity and promise that the color white carried in Blake's 1789 poem. When the sweep was young, too young to even speak his own trade, "'weep! 'weep," he saw the world through suit-stained rose colored glasses (3); the transition, then, into the 1794 poem clearly delineates his stark realization that he has lost his faith.

In the 1789 and 1794 poems "The Chimney Sweeper," a young sweep, disillusioned by the thought that work will equate to safety, "Arbeit macht Frei," serves as a mouthpiece through which author William Blake demonstrates his bitterly resentful attitude towards the decrepit situation for young chimney sweepers in the 18th century. Blake's contrasting somber and bitter tones between the two poems illustrate the boy's transition from vain hopefulness to resignative animosity.