SAMPLE POETRY ANALYSIS ESSAY

William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper”

The Chimney Sweeper

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.

There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head

That curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved, so I said,

“Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head’s bare,

You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.”

And so he was quiet, and that very night,

As Tom was a-sleeping he had such a sight!

That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,

Were all of them locked up in coffins of black;

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,

And he opened the coffins and set them all free;

Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run,

And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.

Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,

They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.

And the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy,

He’d have God for his father and never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark

And got with our bags and our brushes to work.

Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;

So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm. *The child’s lisping attempt at the chimney sweep’s street cry, “Sweep! Sweep!”

The Chimney Sweeper

A little black thing among the snow,

Crying “ ’weep! ’weep!” in notes of woe!

“Where are thy father and mother? say?”

“They are both gone up to the church to pray.

Because I was happy upon the heath,

And smil’d among the winter’s snow,

They clothed me in the clothes of death,

And taught me to sing the notes of woe.

And because I am happy and dance and sing,

They think they have done me no injury,

And are gone to praise God and his Priest and King,

Who make up a heaven of our misery.”

Poetry Analysis Answers in General

• Poems - are special cases because they deal in compressed language.

• Lyric poems - often use a convention, simple on the surface but infinite in its varieties and depth.

• The speaker of the poem - (the “I”) is addressing the reader directly, as prompted by a certain occasion or dramatic situation.

The Idea Machine

1. What’s the literal meaning of the poem?

2. How did the author get you to see that? What is suggested by the title? Who is the speaker and who is the audience? What is the dramatic situation that prompted the speaker to speak? What problem is being explored in the poem, and does the poem find a solution? What feelings do you get from the poem? What is the overall effect of the poem?

3. How do the answers to the first two questions direct your knowledge to adequately answer the exam question?

The same three questions also apply to the poetry analysis essay.

Discussion of “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake

What’s the literal meaning of the poem?

• The speaker in both poems is a chimney sweep.

  In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, boys as young as six were indentured to masters as chimney sweeps by their families, who were too impoverished to keep the children at home.

• Both poems are from a larger project by William Blake, The Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

  The first poem is one of innocence; the second poem, one of experience.

• The poems were written in response to the poor conditions that caused young chimney sweeps to suffer.

What is suggested by the title?

• It indicates that the poem will be about a chimney sweeper.

• In the first poem, it lets the audience know that the “I” of the first stanza is a chimney sweeper.

• In the second poem, it provides a clue as to who the “little black thing among the snow” is and offers a clue about the “I” in the second stanza.

• Finally, the fact that the title is the same in both poems unifies them, and suggests that they are to be read in conjunction if readers don’t already know.

Who is the speaker and who is the audience?

• The primary speaker in both poems is a chimney sweep.

  He is telling the audience about his life as a chimney sweep, and what came before it.

• The audience is the reader. The audience is also presumed to be sympathetic with the plight of the chimney sweeps, or at least to be susceptible to sympathy.

What is the dramatic situation that prompted the speaker to speak?

• In the first poem, the speaker is talking about his own situation as a chimney sweep and his back story. Then, he discusses a boy presumably new to the trade, Tom Dacre, who is having his head shaved for the first time. The speaker comforts Tom about his hair. Tom’s dream, narrated by the speaker, seems partly to be a comforting vision of heaven. The speaker then comes back to offer an adage: if the sweeps do their duty, they needn’t fear any harm.

• In the second poem, the speaker seems also to be discussing his own life as a sweep, but his tone is dark and angry. His parents and other authority figures have seemingly all worked together to take him from the happiness of lines 5 and 9, believing they have not done him injury. But the last line, which directly indicates the sweeps suffer from their “misery,” indirectly condemns parents and authority figures for using the sweeps’ unhappiness to create “a heaven” from it.

What problem is being explored in these poems, and do the poems find a solution?

• First, the chimney sweeps are deprived of parental comfort by being sold into a job in which they sweep chimneys (lines 2 and 4) and carry bags (lines 17, 22), in the first poem.

• Second, it’s a painful existence, in which they sleep in soot (line 4) and cry. In the second poem, they are deprived of happiness as well, and feel misery even more overtly.

• In neither poem is there a specific solution to the problems explored.

What feelings do you get from the poem?

There are several possible ways to interpret the poem:

• One could read it as a religious poem in which God and heaven are offered as a genuine comfort and refuge for Tom Dacre and the other chimney sweeps.

• Or one could see the ending as ironic—something Tom himself is expected to believe, but that the reader is not expected to find persuasive.

• Or one could go further, especially when juxtaposed with the second poem, and believe that religion is created as a false comfort by church and other authorities.

What is the overall effect of the poem?

• The speaker in the first poem shows us his life and the life of Tom Dacre and offers a resolution of sorts.

• The speaker in the second poem shows us his life and offers a bleaker vision.

• Neither case offers a full resolution.

How do the answers to the first two questions direct your knowledge to adequately answer the exam question?

A Strong Beginning

• The beginning paragraph is a first pass at writing about meaning.

• The Reader will be impressed that you forecast the main point so quickly.

Keep Going

• In the next section of our essay, we describe (not summarize!).

• You want to set up the first part of the argument, which is that the narrators differ.

• We also need to support these assertions with concrete examples from the text. That’s our evidence.

• Without evidence, your essay is an empty series of assertions.

And Going

• Let’s talk more about those literary methods and tricks!

• Let’s talk imagery and metaphor!

• Again, let’s use abundant examples from the text as evidence for the Reader that we know what we’re talking about.

SAMPLE ESSAY ON PROSE FICTION

In your response you should do the following:

• Respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents an interpretation and may establish a line of reasoning.

• Select and use evidence to develop and support your line of reasoning.

• Explain the relationship between the evidence and your thesis.

• Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument.

Writing about prose fiction can actually be more difficult than writing about poetry.

• Poetry often presents many difficulties to the reader caused by the density and complexity of poetic language. Prose fiction presents the opposite problem.

• As always, start out with the classic question and let the Idea Machine guide your thinking process.

• Of course, make sure that you allow the question to focus the development of your essay, and also note the time so that you don’t go overboard and come up short on the last essay.

Essay Do’s and Don’ts to Remember

Your first paragraph should

• grab the reader (don’t worry if you can’t do this, but it helps)

• answer the question in the prompt

• preview the evidence you’ll use to support your ideas

Your first paragraph should not

• go off on a tangent

• ignore the prompt

• merely restate the wording of the prompt

Your body paragraphs should

• have clear transitions and topic sentences

• provide evidence, in the form of quotations from the text, that supports your opinion

• explain how that evidence supports your point of view

Your body paragraphs should not

• rely on plot summary

• let quotation outweigh analysis

• ramble

Your conclusion should

• exist

• sum up the evidence for the jury

• contain any profound insights about the work that may have occurred to you while writing

Your conclusion should not

• suggest you didn’t budget your time

• merely restate the introduction or prompt