Analyze the prompt

1. Analyze the prompt • What information are you given about the two poems? • When were they written and why were they written? • What are the tasks you must complete?

2. Analyze the prompt • Compare and contrast the two poems. • Take into consideration the techniques used. • Diction • Imagery • Figurative language • Syntax • Tone • Point of view • Sound devices: alliteration, rhyme, etc. • Structure: sonnet, ballad, lyric, quatrain, etc.

3. What is the main difference in the poems? • Imagery? • Diction? • Point of view? • Tone?

4. Annotate for… • Diction • Imagery

5. Annotate for… • Point of View • Tone

6. Intro paragraph • Write an intro. You may use the following template: Both William Blake poems (what the poems have in common). Yet their (diction, imagery, point of view, tone) are quite different. Whereas in the first poem, Blake (employs, projects, uses, develops, creates, illustrates, reveals)………., in the second poem he (employs, projects, uses, develops, creates, illustrates, reveals)…………..

7. Body paragraphs • Offer a persuasive comparison/contrast of the two poems and present an insightful analysis of the relationship between them in language appropriate to the analysis of poetry. • ASSERTION: insight you have about the poem • TEXTUAL EVIDENCE: quotes or paraphrases • ANALYSIS: explanation of how the author uses poetic techniques and HOW/WHY they create meaning.

8. Body paragraph: POV In the second poem, the adult speaker fully realizes the woeful plight of the chimney sweep as the boy himself reveals what his life is like. In the first two lines, the speaker notes the “little black thing among the snow.” In line 3, he asks him were his parents are. The rest of the poem is the boy’s answer. His parents are in church, “prais[ing] God & his Priest & King.” The boy’s response reveals both his lack of awareness of his true condition and the heartless way his parents and the church have ignored his basic needs. The poem becomes an indictment of the church for valuing religious exercises over people’s lives.

9. Body paragraph: POV Write a paragraph about the point of view of the first poem.

10. Body paragraph: tone The fact that the young speaker is totally unaware of how horrendous his life is creates a tone of naiveté and innocence. The young chimney sweeper could not exist in more bitter circumstances. He was sold into the chimney sweep profession by his father and began the arduous work before he could even speak clearly. He sleeps in “soot” and in “cold” harsh weather, without anyone to care for him. Even though the young boy is forced to work in degrading conditions and has been abandoned by his father, his belief that “if all do their duty, they need not fear harm” reveals that he is completely naïve about the “harm” to which he is exposed every day.

11. Body paragraph: tone Write a paragraph about the tone of the second poem.