In reading this poem, a sad picture was painted for me. When Tom Dacre's hair is compared to being "curled like a lamb's back", the innocence of the children is shown. It makes me wonder how old these children are, and how someone could treat them so poorly. The nightmare in particular startled me because this innocent boy is dreaming of other children in black coffins. That is a disturbing picture for me. I assumed the black coffins were in relation to the soot. This poem was particularly interesting to me, so I researched more on chimney sweepers and their working conditions. I read that they would often times sleep with blankets covered in soot, and the children couldn't bathe but once a week. No wonder a child would dream of coffins of black; he feels like he can't escape. This poem was heartbreaking to me, and opened my eyes to some of the child labor problems that used to be.
I commented on Gaston's post.
I saw it completely differently. While the children were miserable, the appearance of the angel gave them hope. When the angel freed the children from coffins I saw it as him granting the children passage to heaven. The existence of God and a life after death at a minimum let the children know that their existence is greater than sweeping chimneys.
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