Explorations of Childhood and Duty in “The Chimney Sweeper” and “Casab

Although Blake wrote The lamp chimney Sweeper featured in Songs of white before Felicia Hemans was ever born, issues relevant to graduation-generation romanticist authors still pervaded the literary scene when second-generation authors like Hemans final examinationly took the stage. Casabianca, make in 1826, and The lamp chimney Sweeper, published in 1789, both address a central psyche What does it think up to be a child? some(prenominal) poems examine the duties that children have to nine as a whole. While there is an overriding sense of an fealty to duty in both poems, the poems situational irony complicates the relationship between children and responsibility. The final line of The Chimney Sweeper best demonstrates this complicated relationship. The speaker of The Chimney Sweeper concludes by saying, So if all do their duty they look at not fear harm (24). However, we as readers have reason to question the validity of the speakers promise since the poem seems to su ggest that reliever from hardship only comes through death. Through their language, choice of location, situational irony, and other features, The Chimney Sweeper and Casabianca grapple with the notion of childishness in order to shed light on the complicated relationship between children and duty in society. The poems bodily structures appeal to the offspring around whom they centered. Each poem has end-rhyming quatrains, which create a nursery rhymesque feel. Both poems have a more(prenominal) or less regular rhythm, which adds to the talented feeling created by the rhyme. However, it is a common occurrence for the heavy national to contrast with the poems structure. In order to better understand both poems, it is grievous to examine why the authors would have chosen to use a structure that contr... ... fair to say that both poems are advocators of both duty and childhood because of their youthful structure and irony. However, each poem is more heavily leaden tow ards one allegiance or another. Hemans does show remorse for Casabiancas awry(p) death, but her choice to present the story from the third person perspective proves that her allegiance is more towards the fulfillment of duty to family and country than the fulfillment of childhood. On the contrary, Blakes choice to give his child character a first person voice empowers his protagonist and supports the idea that Blake was a bigger proponent of childhood than of duty. Both poems reveal the complicated nature of this issue during the Romantic period, and each poem counters the other to give them both a more multidimensional perspective on the consequences and benefits of preserving childhood and duty.