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

Although Blake wrote The Chimney sweeper featured in Songs of Innocence in the first place Felicia Hemans was ever born, issues relevant to first-generation Romantic authors still pervaded the literary photograph when second-generation authors like Hemans finally took the stage. Casabianca, published in 1826, and The Chimney carpet sweeper, published in 1789, both address a central question What does it mean to be a child? Both poems prove the duties that children pose to society as a whole. While there is an overriding sense of an fealty to af lovely in both poems, the poems situational irony complicates the relationship between children and responsibility. The final air travel of The Chimney Sweeper best demonstrates this confused relationship. The speaker of The Chimney Sweeper concludes by saying, So if all do their duty they need non fear harm (24). However, we as readers have reason to question the hardiness of the speakers promise since the poem seems to sugge st that relief from trouble only comes through death. Through their language, choice of perspective, situational irony, and other features, The Chimney Sweeper and Casabianca grapple with the notion of childhood in order to clarify the complicated relationship between children and duty in society. The poems structures appeal to the youth nigh whom they centered. Each poem has end-rhyming quatrains, which create a nursery rhymesque feel. Both poems have a more or less regular rhythm, which adds to the happy timbre created by the rhyme. However, it is a common occurrence for the heavy content to teleph ace circuit with the poems structure. In order to better understand both poems, it is important to examine why the authors would have chosen to use a structure that contr... ... fair to say that both poems are proponents of both duty and childhood because of their vernal structure and irony. However, separately poem is more heavily weighted towards one allegiance or anothe r. Hemans does show remorse for Casabiancas untimely death, further her choice to present the story from the third someone 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 3-dimensional perspective on the consequences and benefits of preserving childhood and duty.