POETRY QUESTION
2005-2006 PRACTICE EXAM
The poems below, published in 1789 and 1794, were written by William Blake in response to the condition of
chimney sweeps. Usually small children, sweeps were forced inside chimneys to clean their interiors. Read the two
poems carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, compare and contrast the two poems, taking into consideration the
poetic techniques Blake uses in each.
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 & in soot I sleep.
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10
15
A little black thing among the snow
Crying “’weep,’ weep,” in notes of woe!
“Where are thy father & mother? say?”
“They are both gone up to the church to pray.
5 There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head
That curl’d like a lambs back, was shav’d, so I said,
“Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head’s bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.”
5
And so he was quiet, & that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping he had such a sight!
10 That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack,
Were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black;
10
And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And he open’d the coffins & set them all free;
Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run,
And wash in a river and shine in the Sun;
5 “Because I was happy upon the heath,
And smil’d among the winter’s snow;
They clothéd me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.
“And because I am happy, & dance & sing,
10 They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King,
Who make up a heaven of our misery.”
William Blake. “The Chimney Sweeper,” The Complete Poetry
and Prose of William Blake, ed. David V. Erdman (1789; 1794;
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965).
(1794)
15 Then naked & 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,
20
He’d have God for his father & never want joy.
And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark
20 And got with our bags & our brushes to work.
Tho’ the morning was cold, Tom was happy & 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!”
William Blake, “The Chimney Sweeper,” The Complete Poetry
and Prose of William Blake, ed. David V. Erdman (1789; 1794;
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965).
(1789)
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Activity 6: Analyzing the Scoring Guide
As you examine the Scoring Guide, underline or highlight key words in each description.
9-8
These essays offer a persuasive comparison/contrast of the two poems and present an insightful analysis of
the relationship between them. Although the students offer a range of interpretations and choose to
emphasize different poetic techniques, these essays provide convincing readings of both poems and
demonstrate consistent and effective control over the elements of composition in language appropriate to
the analysis of poetry1. Their textual references are apt and specific. Though they may not be error-free,
these essays are perceptive in their analysis and demonstrate writing that is clear and sophisticated, and, in
the case of a 9 essay, especially persuasive.
7-6
These competent essays offer a reasonable comparison/contrast of the two poems and an effective analysis
of the relationship between them. They are less thorough or less precise in their discussion of the themes
and techniques, and their analysis of the relationship between the two poems is less convincing. These
essays demonstrate the student’s ability to express ideas clearly with references to the text, although they
do not exhibit the same level of effective writing as the 9-8 essays. While essays scored 7-6 are generally
well written, those scored a 7 demonstrate more sophistication in both substance and style. 2
5
These essays may respond to the assigned task with a plausible reading of the two poems and their
relationship, but they may be superficial in analysis of theme and technique. They often rely on paraphrase,
but paraphrase that contains some analysis, implicit or explicit. Their comparison/contrast of the
relationship between the two poems may be vague, formulaic, or inadequately supported by references to
the texts. There may be minor misinterpretations of one or both poems. These students demonstrate control
of language but the writing may be marred by surface errors. These essays are not as well conceived,
organized, or developed as 7-6 essays.
4-3
These lower-half essays fail to offer an adequate analysis of the two poems. The analysis may be partial,
unconvincing, irrelevant, or may ignore one of the poems completely. Evidence from the poems may be
slight or misconstrued, or the essays may rely on paraphrase only. The writing often demonstrates a lack of
control over the conventions of composition: inadequate development of ideas, accumulation of errors, or a
focus that is unclear, inconsistent, or repetitive. Essays scored a 3 may contain significant misreadings
and/or demonstrate inept writing.
2-1
These essays compound the weaknesses of the essays in the 4-3 range. Although some attempt has been
made to respond to the prompt, the students’ assertions are presented with little clarity, organization, or
support from the poems themselves. The essays may contain serious errors in grammar and mechanics.
These essays may offer a complete misreading or be unacceptably brief. Essays scored a 1 contain little
coherent discussion of the poems.
“language appropriate to the analysis of poetry” means poetic devices, e.g., rhyme scheme, alliteration, metonymy,
etc.
2
Notice that essays receiving upper-half scores must address both poems and must discuss how Blake uses poetic
devices to reveal meaning (theme).
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2
Activity 7: Sample Scores
(Small Group Activity)
With a partner, read and discuss the sample essays. Then discuss your evaluations
with the entire group.
The following essay received a score of “4.” What has the student done well in this essay? What
are the weaknesses?
SAMPLE ONE
The two poems by William Blake entitled “The Chimney Sweeper,” may seem very
much alike at first glance, but in truth the tone of the poet is different. Each poem begins in a
similar way with the small child, the chimney sweeper, crying “’weep, ’weep.” This phrase,
while meant to show that the child has a lisp, are clearly strategically placed by the poet to
indicate the words that the chimney sweeper really would like to say. The poems are different,
finally, because of the hopeful tone at the end of the first, and the hopeless tone at the end of the
second.
Both poems’ focus is God. In the first poem the chimney sweeper has a dream of going to
heaven, and is told that he will be allowed into heaven “. . .if he’d be a good boy,” (19) This then
inspires the boy to live the way of God, and he is no longer unhappy in life because he has the
promise of a better life if he lives the way of God.
In the second poem, God also plays a central role, but with a much darker context. The
poem says that while the chimney sweeper works his parents are off praying at church. The
purpose of this poem is to highlight the hypocracy of the boy’s parent’s actions. The parents are
away at church, living the way of God on the surface, but they have sold their son off to work at
a likely fatal job.
Although God is the common theme of the two poems, the context is very different for
each. In the first poem God gives the boy hope and inspires him to carry on. In the second, the
boy’s parents worshipping God as their son slaves away at his work is used to show the
hypocracy of those parents who sell their children off to be chimney sweepers. Both poems are
written in iambic pentameter, but each has a unique tone, the first is the hope which God
provides, the second is the hopelessness that the boy’s parents have taken away.
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The following essay received a score of “6.” What has this student writer done well in
responding to the prompt? What could be improved upon?
SAMPLE TWO
Throughout the history of literature, poetry has served as a means of expressing
discomfort of those facing social injustice and cruelty. Fueled by the poor conditions of
eighteenth century chimney sweepers, usually young children, William Blake was such a poet
who wrote about this social tragedy of his time. In two of his poems, both named “The Chimney
Sweeper”, he uses several different poetic techniques, including aspects of diction and syntax, as
well as opposing ideas about God and religion to show the mistreatment of these young chimney
sweeps.
Throughout both poems, diction is used to express the poet’s bewilderment over the
circumstance’s society has allowed these young chimney sweeps to fall into. In both, an informal
tone establishes a connection between the reader and the probably uneducated chimney sweeps.
In both poems, moreover, the connotations associated between light and dark and black and
white are used extensively. In the first poem, this can be seen in the line, “You know that the
soot cannot spoil your white hair.” This, in itself, is used perhaps to reflect the innocence of the
boy’s “white hair” and his effort to not allow it to be tarnished by the dark-colored “soot”.
Further along in the first poem, the phrase “coffins of black” enhances the idea that these
children are being affected and may establish a metaphor to the black chimneys the children
must crawl into. Thus, their everyday job of entering chimneys may be seen as a metaphor for
their own death. Even further within the first poem, the phrases “shine in the sun” and “naked &
white” help to enforce the concept of their innocence through this color connotation. This is in
contrast to the phrase “we rose in the dark” used later in the poem. Similarly, the second poem
uses this same idea. The first line, “A little black thing amoung the snow” also helps to establish
the “blackening” or corrupting of the child, brought out by the snow. Altogether, these poems
use this diction technique to further the idea of the suffering of the children.
Syntax is also used to enhance Blake’s plea for the young chimney sweep. While the first
poem uses an “AABB” rhyme scheme throughout the piece, the second poem diverges into an
“ABAB” rhyme scheme for the second and third stanzas. This flow and rhyme in both forms
helps to move along the reader to understand the lives of these suffering. This difference in
syntax helps to also reflect a difference shown by the poet in his interpretation of religion.
In each poem, God is shown to have a different relationship to the young chimney
sweeps. While God can be seen as a protector over the children in the first poem, with the line,
“So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.” In contrast, the second poem establishes God
as the creator of their suffering and, thus, creates a much different tone. While their parents have
“gone up to the church to pray”, it is clear that it is “God & his Priest & King” that create
“misery” for the children. Overall, these two different view points make each poem unique.
Through diction, syntax, and Godly imagery, William Blake creates a feeling of empathy
between the reader and the chimney sweeps. With poets such as Blake expressing their
disapproval of these conditions, many politicians took note and different laws were established to
help fight child labor. Today, society must see the importance of such activism in poetry and
other forms of art in order to make twenty-first century life better and void of the many problems
society faces today.
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The following sample received the score of “8.” Identify the ways in which the student writer
addresses the prompt. What other qualities of college-level writing does this essay display?
SAMPLE THREE
The Chimney Sweeper pair of poems is part of a series by Blake which present
dichotomous descriptions of the same subject matter; it is matter; i.e. a cynical perspective versus
a more innocent, victimized one. This pair comprise a caustic social criticism of the conditions in
18th century London. The first of the two features the point of view of an unnamed chimney
sweep & is consequently less thersitical in its approach to the chimney sweeper injustice. Poem
two is far more direct, & does not hesitate to censure the iniquities of the system, whether they
be societal, political, or religious. Thus the pair are similar in their syntactic approach—they both
consist of quatrains, mostly with rhyming couplets. They differ in the voice of the speaker & the
explicitness of their condemnation.
These two poems are comparably stylistically as they both deal quite directly with
chimney sweepers. They both appeal to our sense of justice & sentimentality, particularly with
the unabashedly sentimental “’weep! ’weep! ’weep! ’weep!” line which occurs in both within the
first three lines. There is a compact AABB rhyme scheme throughout all of poem 1. This persists
into stanza 1 of poem 2, which segues into a similar ABAB rhyme pattern for the last two
stanzas. There is also an imperfect iambic pentameter, which averages in at around 10 syllables
per line. Both poems make use of dialogue, such as in lines 7-8 of poem 1, with “Hush Tom!
never mind it. . .” & lines 3-4 of poem 2 with “Where are thy father & mother? say?” There is
also an abundant use of the ampersand (&) symbol throughout each poem. This likely serves to
diminish the pretense of the medium, & to show readers that he has working class sensibilities, in
contrast to the aristocratic tastes of many of his contemporaries. And, significantly, though the
voice of the two poems may differ, the fundamental point of view does not.
There are a good deal of differences between these two poems. Most noticeable is the
difference in tone. Poem 1 has a single youthful protagonist whose perspective is reflected
throughout. this protagonist introduces us to the plight of his fellow chimney sweep Tom Dacre,
who objects to having his head shaved. This protagonist introduces us to the figurative language
of the “coffins of black” (line 12) & “Angel who had a bright key” (line 13) which
metaphorically illustrate the anguish of these underage workers. Of course, the dream ends in a
comforting thought—frolicking on a pure plain in the sun— & the two could continue with their
unpleasant tasks. The second poem could be no more direct. Blake does not pull any punches
here, & instead tells us the truth as he sees it, with very little in the way of poetic conceit. In a
short 3 stanzas, Blake criticizes the church, which attempts to hide these conditions, & the
political establishment, which takes money & reinvests none of it into the working class. Blake
has here constructed a potent, though contrasting, set of criticisms of the social standards of his
day, almost directly encouraging his readers to attempt to change them.
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