Significance of the Industrial Revolution in the Poems, The Chimney Sweeper and Ruined Maid

The Industrial Revolution began in the 18th- early19th centuries and played an important role on the alteration of industry and life in England; a great number of small farms were replaced by cities, goods were being mass produced at a rapid rate, the economy was strengthened, and the social class structure shifted. However, with all the glory came gloom, certain social classes became horribly affected by this great change, such as being economically exploited, and individuals from these social classes protested against this revolution; two poets, William Blake and Thomas Hardy used their poetic talents to craft poems that protested the effects of the Industrial Revolution in England, and both poems, William Blake's, "The Chimney Sweeper," and Thomas Hardy's, "Ruined Maid," were told through the dialect of a member of the underclass/economically exploited.

In William Blake's, "The Chimney Sweeper" there is one speaker; a young, abandoned child whom was sold by his father at a very young age, "When my mother died I was very young. And my father sold me..." This speaker tells the story of living an economically exploited life as a chimney sweeper during the industrial Revolution. In Thomas Hardy's, "Ruined Maid," there are two speakers, two young ladies, one who has left farm life and has ventured into the city, "At home in the barton you said thee and thou, And 'thik oon,' and yjeas oon,' and 't' other'; but now..." and the other who still resides on the farm, "Tired of digging potatoes, and spudding up docks."