Research Paper on:
Irony in 'The Chimney Sweeper' by William Blake

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
or literature. In this particular instance, the paper will focus on the concept of irony as it pertains to William Blakes poem, "The Chimney Sweeper," found in his literary collection,  Songs of Innocence. In beginning a paper of this type, its always important to list a theme or thesis. In this case, the thesis could be structured to say: "William  Blake, in his poem, The Chimney Sweeper, uses irony throughout his work in order to discuss the plight of child laborers, and to support advocacy of child labor laws." Once  the thesis statement of the paper has been introduced, its time to get into the actual meat of the topic, both by defining the concept of irony, and by discussing  how Blake uses it in his poem. Although its assumed that most people know the meaning of "irony" because it is used  so much in everyday conversation, this is not a safe assumption. This paper could end up in the hands of the one person who has never heard of irony, and  has never heard of irony in terms of a literary connection. Given that factor, its a good idea to define irony. In this case, the definition comes from The Columbia  Encyclopedia, 5th edition, and notes that irony is: ". . . figure of speech in which what is stated is not what is meant. The user of irony assumes that  his reader or listener understands the concealed meaning of his statement. Perhaps the simplest form of irony is rhetorical irony, when, for effect, a speaker says the direct opposite of  what she means. Thus, in Shakespeares Julius Caesar, when Mark Antony refers in his funeral oration to Brutus and his fellow assassins as "honorable men" he is really saying that