Arianna Pulido

4th period

February 17 2009

Changes in Society

During the Romantic Period, many Romantics thought of nature as

transformative and were fascinated by the ways nature had its motives. Most

Romantics also believed in individualism and sympathy. But not only was it about

romanticism, the Romantic Period faced many changes such as the rise of the

industrialization and urbanization revolution, child labor, and bad conditions in

Europe. Therefore, the literature of this period does more than focus on a speaker’s

point of view of the changes, but the innocence of a speaker who thinks he will be

rewarded in heaven. William Blake (1757-1827) and William Wordsworth (1770-

1850) both saw what changes did to Europe during the Romantic Period. Both Blake’s

poem “The Chimney Sweeper from Songs of Innocence” and Wordsworth’s poem

“The World is Too Much with Us” use tone, irony, and imagery to develop the

theme- urbanization and industrialization caused changes in society, which was a

major concern to the Romantic Period.

The tones in both poems are very different when comparing both of them. In

“The Chimney Sweeper from Songs of Innocence,” the child speaker tells about his

parents selling him as child labor to a master. “Could scarcely cry ‘weep! ‘weep!

‘weep! ‘weep!/ so your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep” (lines 3-4). He accepts
the job that he has and turns it into happiness. Blake uses tone to show that the child

speaker will be rewarded in heaven. In “The World is Too Much with Us” it is about

how people during this period thought of the world as material objects, social status,

and money. “For this, for everything, we are out of tune” (line 8). Wordsworth uses

tone to show that people during this period were tuned with themselves rather than

the horrible changes and bad conditions that were happening in society.