Analysis of The Chimney Sweeper: A Little Black Thing Among The Snow
William Blake 1757 (Soho) – 1827 (London)
A little black thing among 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 smil'd among the winter's 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.'
Scheme | AABB XAXA CDCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 010110101 10110111 111100101 1111110111 0111100101 01010101 11100111 011110111 00111100101 1111111100 01111101101 111010110100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 483 |
Words | 102 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 12 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 122 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 30 sec read
- 683 Views
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