The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake (From Songs of Experience) Essay Example for Free

The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake (From Songs of Experience) Essay â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper† is one of the poems written by William Blake which is based on the status of the society during the Industrial Revolution. During this period, people suffered from extreme poverty as materialism, social injustice, and child enslavement thrived. Hence, writers such as William Blake resorted to expressing their thoughts through their literary works. The poem deals with the detestable exploitation of young children as chimney sweeper. It appears that Blake used bleak contrasts to present this deplorable practice. While some of the lines contained innocent rhymes, the subject matter is dark and grim. Blake wrote the poem from the perspective of a young boy who became a chimney sweeper. On the first two lines of the poem, the main character of the poem tells the readers how he became a chimney sweeper: when his mother died, his father sold him before he can even speak. As it was told in rhymes, these lines reflect how innocent the boy is of the social injustice plaguing England at that time. His naivete has caused him to accept his circumstance while hoping for the day when his freedom from impoverishment would come. He also appears to be stronger than his fellow chimney sweeper, Tom Dacre. When Tom cried because he lost his hair, the narrator comforted him by making Tom realize the brighter side of his misfortune: â€Å"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your heads bare, / You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair. † Thus, for the sake of Tom, he had to remain strong. In the third stanza, Blake used a dream to portray Tom’s desire to escape his unfortunate fate and live freely in a heaven-like place. Towards the end, the angel in the dream reminded Tom to â€Å"be a good boy† if he wants to go to heaven. This dream could be the representation of Tom’s innocent hope. Thus, when Tom awoke from the dream, he felt â€Å"happy and warm. † The poem ends with Tom concluding that all will be well as long as he performs his duties. This duty may mean two things: his job as a chimney sweeper, and his duty to God. Despite their unfortunate circumstance, the young chimney sweepers do not seem to bear ill-feelings about their miserable lives. Instead, they seem to look at the brighter side of things and hold on to hope that a better life is out there for them. Through this poem, Blake may be trying to make his readers feel guilty. These children who seem to lead such difficult lives are capable of optimism, while those who are more fortunate do nothing but complain. If this was an accurate representation of the exploited young children’s thoughts during the Industrial Revolution, Blake may also be encouraging his readers to act against child enslavement and save the children’s innocence before it becomes tainted.

The Significance of Villains in Beowulf Essay -- Epic Beowulf essays

The Significance of Villains in Beowulf  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   Ancient, timeless, and very, very hard to read, Beowulf has plagued well-meaning college students for centuries with its cryptic passages and vague metaphors. Yet at the root it resonates with a sort of clear allegorical criticism aimed at Scandinavian warrior society. In the story of Beowulf, the unnatural fiends in the poem were each symbols for the political strife in the system. They formed the basic constructs in an allegory against the flawed nature of the warrior society at the time. Grendel, the first monster, makes his appearance directly after the poet references the men in their mead-hall. Yet he is not simply referred to in a natural segue between themes: he is actually introduced directly after speaking of future strife among the family in that hall. Note in the following passage where the poet breaks off what began as a paragraph about the merry-making which went on in the hall known as Heorot. The hall stood tall, high and wide-gabled: it would wait for the fierce flames of vengeful fire; the time was not yet at hand for sword-hate between son-in-law and father-in-law to awaken after murderous rage. Then the fierce spirit painfully endured hardship for a time, he who dwelt in the darkness.... The form it takes can essentially be described as "They celebrated, but all was not well in the future of the hall. Also, Grendel waited outside...." The close proximity of the description of familial betrayal and Grendel's introduction leads to the conclusion that the two are related. As I interpret it, the demon Grendel is a symbol for the terrible problem of succession that the Danes suffered time and again. The unstable nature of the court and th... ...m. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.    Shippey, Thomas A.. â€Å"Structure and Unity.† In A Beowulf Handbook, edited by Robert Bjork and John D. Niles. Lincoln, Nebraska: Uiversity of Nebraska Press, 1997.    Sisam, Kenneth. â€Å"The Structure of   Beowulf.† In Beowulf: The Donaldson Translation, edited by Joseph F. Tuso. New York, W.W.Norton and Co.: 1975.    Tharaud, Barry. â€Å"Anglo-Saxon Language and Traditions in Beowulf.† In Readings on Beowulf, edited by Stephen P. Thompson. San Diego: Greenhaven Press,1998.    Tolkien, J.R.R.. â€Å"Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.† In Beowulf – Modern Critical Interpretations, edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.    Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000   

Mens Paternity Leave

College Writing English 111 Fall 2012 Essay #3: Writing Strategy Prompts Evaluation Using the techniques of social satire modeled in â€Å"A Word from My Anti-Phone Soapbox† (pg. 131), assess a public policy, social movement, or cultural trend you believe deserves serious and detailed criticism. But don’t write a paper simply describing your target as dangerous, pathetic, or unsuccessful. Instead, make people laugh at your target while also offering a plausible alternative. Causal Analysis After examining the way Charles Paul Freund deals with jeans (pg. 70), identify a comparable trend you have noticed or a change in society or culture that deserves scrutiny. It might relate to technology, entertainment, political preference, fashion, popularity of careers, or other areas. Write an analysis of the phenomenon, considering either causes or potential consequences of this new mania. Then illustrate the trend with images that suggest its cultural reach or significance. Spen d some time in the opening of your paper describing the trend and establishing that it is consequential.Rhetorical Analysis Using Seth Stevenson’s â€Å"Ad Report Card Can Cougars Sell Cough Drops? † on pg. 253 as a model, write your own critical analysis of a single ad or full ad campaign you find worthy of attention. Choose a fresh campaign, one that hasn’t yet received much commentary. Literary Analysis In â€Å"Insanity: Two Women† (pg. 231), Kanaka Sathasivan does a close, almost line-by-line analysis of Emily Dickinson’s â€Å"I felt a Funeral in my Brain†; then she compares the themes and strategies of the poem to those she finds n Charlotte Gilman’s â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper. † For a project of your own, do either a close reading of a favorite short poem or song or a comparison of two works from different genres of media. For the close reading, tease out all the meanings and strategies you can uncover and show readers how the text works. For the comparison, be sure to being with works that interest you because of some important similarity: They may share a theme or plot or even be the same work in two different media—The Prince of Persia video game and movie, for instance.

traglear Tragic Hero in King Lear Essay - 1591 Words

The definition of tragedy in Webster’s dictionary is, drama of elevated theme and diction and with unhappy ending; sad event, serious accident, calamity.nbsp; However, the application of this terminology in Shakespearean Tragedy is more expressive.nbsp; Tragedy does not only mean death or calamity, but in fact, it refers to a series of steps that leads to the downfall of the tragic hero and eventually to his tragic death.nbsp; Lear, the main character in King Lear was affirmed as the tragic hero because the play meets all the requirements of a tragedy.nbsp;nbsp; In order for a character to be qualified as a tragic hero, he must be in a high status on the social chain and the hero also possesses a tragic flaw that initiates the†¦show more content†¦nbsp; nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; The downfall of Lear is not just the suffering of him alone but the suffering of everyone down the chain of being.nbsp; For instance, Lears pride and anger caused Cordelia and Kent to be banished, and Gloucester loses his position and eyes.nbsp; Everything that happened to these characters are in a chain of reaction and affected by Lears tragic flaw.nbsp; If Lear did not lack of personal insight and if he did not havenbsp; such an obstinate pride, he would not have banished Cordelia and Kent, then Goneril and Regan would not be able to conspire against Lear. Without the plot of Goneril and Regan, Gloucester would not have been betrayed by Edmund and lose his eyes and status due to the charge of treason.nbsp; Moreover, the chain of reaction was continuous