WILLIAM BLAKE The Chimney Sweeper

1. 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.

2. There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,

That curled like a lamb's 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.”

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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 joy.

6. And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,

And got with our bags and our brushes to work.

Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;

So if all do their duty they need not fear harm

 SUMMARY
 poem by William Blake, published in his 1789 collection Songs of
Innocence
 The poem is told from the perspective of a young chimney sweep, a
boy who has been sold into labor by his father.
 The sweep meets a new recruit to the chimney sweeping gang named
Tom Dacre, who arrives terrified
 After the speaker tries to reassure Tom, Tom dreams of an angel who
sets the chimney sweeps free, allowing them to play in green fields
and then ascend to heaven.
 This dream seems to suggest that if the boys are obedient workers,
they'll get into heaven.
 Implicitly, though, the poem takes issue with this idea, suggesting that
it's a form of indoctrination for the Church
 makes this position—that promises of heavenly salvation are simply a
means to exploit child labor—crystal clear.

Analysis
Stanza1:
 I was just a little boy when my mother died. My father then sold
me into the chimney sweep profession before I even knew how
to speak. Since then, all I've done is sweep chimneys and sleep
covered in dirt.
Stanza2:
 A new boy arrived one day; his name was Tom Dacre. He cried
when his curly lamb-like hair was shaved off. I told him not to
worry: with a shaven head, his beautiful locks wouldn't have to
get dirty from all the chimney dust.
Stanza3:
 Later that night, Tom fell asleep. He had a vision in a dream. He
saw row upon row of dead chimney sweepers in black coffins.
Stanza4:
 An angel came along with a key and unlocked the coffins, setting
the sweeps free. Then they frolic in green fields, bathing in clear
water and basking in the sun.
Stanza5:
 Naked, clean, and without their work implements, the sweeps
rise up to heaven on clouds and play in the wind. The angel tells
Tom that if he behaves well God will take care of him and make
sure he is happy.
Stanza6:
 The next day, Tom woke up. We got out of bed before dawn and
went with our bags and chimney brushes to our work. It was a
cold morning but Tom seemed fine. If we all just work hard,
nothing bad will happen.

Poetic device:
Assonance is used throughout "The Chimney Sweeper." The poem,
generally speaking, uses simple language that fits with the speaker being a
young sweep himself. The assonance has a gently playful sound to it, which
helps support the poem's focus on issues of childhood.

An early example of assonance is in line 4: "So your chimneys I sweep & in

soot I sleep." The /ee/ sound chimes with "weep" from the line before,
linking the act of crying to the enforced labor of chimney sweeping. As a
repeated sound, the /ee/ also suggests the way that chimney sweeping is a
repetitive task.

In line 12, which is part of Tom Dacre's dream, assonance and consonance
are used to create an image of dead chimney sweeps all "locked up in coffins
of black." The uniformity of the vowel sounds suggests the way that so many
young children have suffered the same fate.

Lines 15 and 16 are also part of Tom Dacre's dream, and use subtle
assonance to suggest the playfulness of childhood:

Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run,

And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.

These /ee/ and /i/ vowels have a bouncy, frolicking kind of sound. In
contrast to the examples discussed above, these lines capture a sense of joy
—joy that is starkly different from the boys' daily lives.
NOTEfigures of speech

Tom Dacre's lamb-like hair is a symbol for youthful innocence. When he's forced to join
the chimney sweep gang, Tom Dacre has his hair shaved off. This hair is compared
through simile to the curls on a "lamb's back." This helps emphasize Tom Dacre's
youthfulness and innocence—like a lamb, he is young and defenseless. The act of
shaving off his hair thus represents a loss of innocence, as well as the general
demeaning of children that took place in industrialized London.

The specific mention of a lamb also has religious connotations. Jesus, for example, is
also known as the Agnus Dei (the Lamb of God), and the lamb is a traditional symbol
for Christ. In Blake's own poetry, the lamb is an important figure for spirituality,
Godliness, and natural beauty (see "The Lamb" which also appears in Songs of
Innocence).

The act of shaving additionally could also be seen as an allusion to the Biblical story of
Samson. In the Book of Judges, Samson loses his immense strength when his hair is
chopped off while he is sleeping. Similarly, Tom Dacre loses his youthful joy when his
hair gets cut off.
 Poem’s form
 "The Chimney Sweeper" is made up of six quatrains, or four-line
stanzas. This kind of format is typical of Blake's poems,
especially those in Songs of Innocence and Experience. The
simplicity and regularity of the form supports the discussion of
childhood, almost as if it's a nursery rhyme or childhood fable.
The poem flows easily, mimicking the voice of a child.
 There are four distinct sections to the poem. The first stanza is
essentially the speaker's introduction to the misery and hardship
of the life of a chimney sweep.
 The second stanza is Tom Dacre's arrival into the chimney sweep
gang, followed by the shaving of his head.
 The third, fourth, and fifth stanzas all deal with Tom Dacre's
dream—which has elements of pastoral poetry (idyllic
representations of nature). It also smuggles in what could be
interpreted as a kind of brainwashing. That is, the dream
reinforces the message Tom Dacre will have been hearing from
the adults in charge of him, such as the master sweep and the
Church administrators: that he should be a "good boy" and get
on with his work.
 The final stanza takes place after the dream, with Tom and the
speaker setting off for work the next morning.
RHYME SCHEME
 "The Chimney Sweeper" is written in quatrains that can be further
broken down into two rhymed couplets, giving each stanza the rhyme
scheme:
 AABB
 Overall, this regular scheme helps with the easy flow of the poem,
which again is common to Blake's sound—a simplicity that holds
complex ideas in place.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
 Chimney sweeping was a horrific form of work mostly inflicted on
children. Roughly speaking, this forced labor was most prominent
between the Great Fire of London (1666) and its abolition in 1875.
Ironically, it was regulations after the Great Fire that made England's
chimneys more angular and narrow—making children pretty much the
only people small enough to get inside them to clean them. This was
 terrible work—the soot was carcinogenic, and sweeps were sometimes
burned, trapped, or asphyxiated.

 The speaker and Tom Dacre are probably what was technically known
as climbing boys. A gang of chimney sweepers would be led by a
master sweep—an adult—who would get paid by the state authorities
to take on children for work. These master sweeps had to provide
lodgings and meals to their group, but this was highly unregulated
and, as the poem suggests, a pretty miserable existence.

 It's notable that in this deeply religious poem there is no mention of

the official Church. Instead, the reader is presented with a close
communion between nature, humanity, and God—which is how Blake
felt religion should be. Blake's rebellious streak also owed something
to the American and French Revolutions, which gave thinkers
opportunities to dream of better forms of society (though the
revolutions didn't necessarily fulfill those promises).

SETTING
 The poem is set in London, during the Industrial Revolution in the late
1700s.