Name
Date
SELECTED POETRY BY WILLIAM BLAKE
COPY MASTER
Reading Skill
COMPARE AND CONTRAST POEMS
Blake wrote Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience to contrast two opposing states
of the human soul. You can compare and contrast poems from the two works by looking at
Blake’s word choice, ideas, and tone (attitude toward the subject matter).
Directions: As you read the poems, use this chart to record similarities and differences for
each pair of poems. An example has been done for you.
Word Choice
little
wooly bright
tender voice
Songs of Experience
“The Tyger”
SELECTED POETRY BY WILLIAM
BLAKE
Songs of Innocence
“The Lamb”
burning bright
fire of thine eyes
Ideas
Copyright © McDougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin Company.
Tone
Songs of Innocence
“The Chimney Sweeper”
Songs of Experience
“The Chimney Sweeper”
Word Choice
Ideas
Tone
Resource Manager
Unit 4
British Literature
27
Name
Date
SELECTED POETRY BY WILLIAM BLAKE
Selection Test A
Comprehension
Read each of the following questions. Then choose the letter of the best answer. (6 points
each)
1. The speaker’s questions in lines 1–2 and 9–10
5. The questions in lines 5–8 of “The Tyger”
suggest that the
A. lamb’s home
A. fire makes the tiger destructive
B. lamb’s daily life
B. sight of the tiger enlightens people
C. creator of the lamb
C. tiger burns with anger at its creator
D. speaker’s lack of faith
D. tiger is a wild and powerful force
2. Reread lines 5–8 of “The Chimney Sweeper”
6. In lines 13–16 of “The Tyger,” the descriptions
from Songs of Innocence. The author
symbolizes the loss of innocence in these lines
with the
of furnaces, hammers, chains, and anvils
create a sense of the
A. speaker’s advice to Tom Dacre
B. tiger’s calmness
B. death of the speaker’s mother
C. tiger’s happiness
C. description of Tom’s dream
D. creator’s strength
A. creator’s hatred
D. shaving of Tom’s head
7. Which phrase best expresses the boy’s
3. Why are the boys in Tom’s dream in “The
Copyright © McDougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin Company.
Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Innocence
able to play on the green plain?
unhappiness in lines 1–4 of “The Chimney
Sweeper” from Songs of Experience?
A. “Where are thy father and mother”
A. Their jobs as chimney sweepers are a bad
B. “gone up to the church to pray”
dream.
B. An Angel unlocks the coffins that trap
them.
C. Play is their reward after their hair is cut.
D. The boys run away from work.
C. “Crying ‘’weep, ’weep’”
4. The boy says that he is alone in lines 1–4 of
“The Little Boy Lost” because the
A. father walks too fast for the boy to keep up
B. boy only imagines that his father is present
D. “among the snow”
8. The “howling storm” in line 4 of “The Sick
Rose” emphasizes that the worm is
A. dangerous
B. invisible
C. sleepy
D. lonely
C. father wants his son to be a chimney
sweeper
D. boy has chosen to cross a swamp alone
Resource Manager
Unit 4
British Literature
31
SELECTED POETRY BY WILLIAM
BLAKE
suggest that the subject of “The Lamb” is the