Question

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, and in soot I sleep? please explain and reference to context ansere me​

Answer 1

Explanation:

1. The poem opens with the speaker telling us that his mother died when he was just a wee little tyke.

How young is "very young"? Five? Six? Three? Yeah, somewhere in there sounds about right.

This line is just a basic, give-you-the-facts kind of opener, don't you think?

Still, there's at least one thing to notice: the sing-songy rhythm Blake's got going on. When my mother died I was very young.

Keep a weather eye out to see if this rhythm sticks around in the poem. And check out our "Form and Meter" section for more.

Lines 2-4

And my father sold me while yet my tongue

Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!

So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.The speaker tells us more about his childhood. It turns out his father sold him before he could even really speak.

Um, did he just say sold? Is he saying he's a slave? This is headed nowhere good.

The phrase "my tongue / Could scarcely cry" is a neat, poetic way of saying "before I could even cry." Blake's gettin' all fancy on us.

Plus, he's using a little device called metonymy here, too. When he says tongue, he's really referring to the speaker's voice (a tongue can't actually make a sound all on its own). When a poet uses something closely related to something else to refer to that something else, we call it metonymy.

In the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, most chimney sweepers—people who cleaned chimneys—were young boys, because they were small and could crawl up there with ease.

So we're thinking that the boy's father sold him to somebody who runs a chimney-cleaning business. After all, he tells us straight up that because his father sold him, he sweeps chimneys, and sleeps in soot.

Does the boy sleep in a pile of soot? Or is he so dirty from working that he has soot all over his body? Either way, it does not sound fun.

As it turns out, sometimes, chimney sweepers would sleep under the blankets or cloths they used to collect soot during the day. This was known as sleeping in soot.

Notice anything else here? How about that rhythm from the first line—has it changed at all?

And what about the rhyme scheme? Did you notice that? It looks like a straight up AABB. Young rhymes with tongue, and weep rhymes with sleep.

Answer 2

Answer: These lines are from the poem "The Chimney sweeper" by William Blake.

Explanation:

William Blake published "The Chimney Sweeper" in 1789. One of the greatest English poets and artists of the early 1800s is William Blake (November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827). Blake was thought mad for his eccentric views, but later critics admired his expressiveness, originality, and philosophical and spiritual undercurrents in his work. His art and writing are Romantic and "Pre-Romantic." When he died, Blake was widely regarded as one of the greatest poets and artists of the Romantic era.

"The Chimney Sweeper" is a dismal poem about a young kid in 1700s London who cleans soot from chimneys for a profession. The poem portrays this life as destitute and difficult. The poem argues that this exploitation robs children of their childhood, freedom, and joy. Early in the poem, the hardships of 18th-century London's destitute boys are established.

• Chimney sweeping was risky, arduous employment for kids.
• The reader learns shortly that the speaker's mother died and his father sold him into servitude.
• Tom Dacre grew up similarly. Now, his head has been forced shaved to improve his sweeping.
• Both kids are doomed.
• Chimney sweeping is the boys' life. They sweep all day and sleep "in soot," both literally and figuratively.
• Their everyday misery influences their dreams.
• The sweeper encounters Tom Dacre,
• a nervous new recruit.
• Tom dreams of an angel releasing chimney sweeps to play in green fields and ascend to heaven as the speaker tries to soothe him.
• This dream suggests that obedient guys will enter heaven. Implicitly, the poem suggests this is Church indoctrination. T
• he same-titled poem in Songs of Experience makes this point clear: promises of heavenly salvation are used to exploit juvenile labor.
• The poem then offers a brief glimpse of what childhood should actually be like, which is full of freedom, joy, and nature

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