Critics' Opinion on William Blake's The Chimney Sweeper

Students Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Date
Critics' Opinion on William Blake
The chimney sweeper poem has received numerous critical viewpoints from different scholars. One common critical argument is that the poem's scope is quite limited. Critics argue that Blake failed to portray equality in its scope. It only focused on the plights of male chimney sweepers and completely left out a representation of female chimney sweepers and marginalized groups sweepers (Sandy 13). Critics assert that including more groups and female sweepers in the poem would have significantly increased the poem's scope in advocating for social injustice issues in society. Hence, Blake should have done much more to increase the scope; in doing so, he would have created more impact.
Secondly, the poem has been criticized for its overly simplistic message and inability to capture social reform complexities. Religious critics argue that Blake failed to show the positive impact religion has on solving social injustice issues in society. He rather portrayed religion with a negative connotation and in a very harsh manner (Karakuzu 105). Critics insist that even though Blake was way ahead of others at the time in condemning child labor practices, the poem did not achieve any significant milestone since it failed to provide a concrete solution to the problem. According to some critics, the repetitive structure of the poem and the use of religious themes is considered simplistic and depict the author's lack of sophistication in his writings.
Thirdly, the poem has been criticized for its excessive use of emotional appeal. Some critics argue that Blake's overly emotional portrayal of the chimney sweepers made the poem bring in an atmosphere of too much romanticization of the plights of the sweepers. Therefore, according to critics, the poem failed to discuss the real issues the sweepers were going t...