William Blake

Blake's work was different from all the other readings by the other authors I've read so far in that he adds religion in almost every single one of his poems. Of course that is not a bad thing it's just something that I noticed.

I really did like his work, especially the fact that a lot of it dealt with children. the introduction poem from "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" was so sweet. It's simply about playing music that is bringing joy to a child (or is it the spirit of a child). Everyone is quite aware of the fact that it really doesn't take a lot to bring a smile to a child's face and I love the fact that Blake has really expressed that in this poem.

"The Chimney Sweeper" was another great poem that Blake wrote. On the contrary it is very sad. The little excerpt at the bottom of the page that correlated with the word "sweeper" explained that "Chimney-sweepers were mostly young boys, whose impoverished parents sold them into the business, or who were orphans, outcats, or illegitimate children with no other means of living" (pg. 81). Reading that really broke my heart. How could any parent just sell their child like that. I'm pretty sure they did not get that much money and even if they did you can never put a price on someones life. Reading this poem also made me think of the movie "The Little Princess" (I'm sure almost all of you remember that movie) and the little boy in that movie who was sweeping the chimney of the boarding school and how horribly he was treated by everyone. The best thing about this poem though was the fact that the little boy Tom had something to be happy about when he awoke in the morning. He had something comforting to hold on to.