英国文学导读 (17).pdf

The Chimney Sweeper From Songs of Experience • Songs of Experience paints a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a melancholy tone. A little black thing in 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 smiled among the winters 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. Interpretation • This poem further explores the theme of exploitation and hypocrisy of both the society and religion. • It reveals the relation between the economic circumstance, i.e. the exploitation of child labor, and an ideological circumstance, i.e. the role played by religion in making the children compliant to exploitation. • The authorities of the society, represented by God, Priest and King, are hypocritically pious. They maintain a corrupt and luxurious life by exploiting and deceiving the poverty-stricken groups, and bring misery to the poor children. • Through the childs simple statement of their sorrows and sufferings, the poet reveals to us the darkness and cruelty of the world they were living in. • The tone of this poem is explicit and accusatory, which makes this poem even more powerful.有 缘学习更多+谓ygd3076考证资料 Summary • 1. A symbolist: In his poetry, images of a lamb, a tiger , a flower or sand represent something beyond their material existence. Through these symbols, he visualized a world of his own. • 2. An important pre-romantic poet: a liberator of human spirit and a rebellious genius in art, challenging the