William Blake (1757-1827)

A poet of <The Chimney Sweeper> and <The Sick Rose>, William Blake is a Pre-Romanticism poet who used a theme of conflicts between innocence and experience. (This topic is used by a lot of other artists too, since it's a conflict almost every human go through during their lives. We can also describe whole human history with the theme, especially regarding the Adam's garden.) He also used a lot of biblical symbolism, as he was a extremely devout Christian who never went to church.

The Chimney Sweeper
1789 by William Blake

When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry "'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!"
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curled like a lamb, back, was shaved: so I said
"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."

And so he was quiet, and that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins and set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.

Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father, and never want (lack) joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags and brushed to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.

The Sick Rose

O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out they bed
Of crimson joy,
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

crimson=새빨간
Rose = has traditionally been a symbol of feminine beauty and love / sensual pleasures.
Bed = a woman's bed as well as a flower bed
crimson joy = suggests the intense pleasure of passionate lovemaking as well as the brilliant beauty of a red flower.
Worm = the woman's secret lover. common symbol or metonymy (환유. 어떤 낱말 대신에 그것을 연상시키는 다른 낱말을 쓰는 비유) for death.

The poem suggests the corruption of innocent but physical love by concealment and deceit.