The Chimney Sweeper
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 & in soot I sleep.
Theres little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head
That curled like a lambs back was shav'd, 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. & that very night.
As Tom was a sleeping he had such a sight
That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack
Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black,
And by came an Angel who had a bright key
And he open'd the coffins & 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 & 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 & never want joy.
And so Tom awoke and we rose in the dark
And got with our bags & our brushes to work.
Tho' the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm
So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.
As demonstrated in many of his poems, William Blake was often concerned about the social difficulties that were presented in his era. He was also suspicious to the power which was connected to the church. Wrote during the times of child labour his poem “The Chimney Sweeper” tells the story of a poor and uneducated boy born into a lower class background whose mother has died early on in his life and his father has sold him on to be a chimney sweeper.
In the first stanza we are already shown the difficulties this boy has faced at an extremely young age, his father has sold him on before he could even talk and Blake illustrates the bad conditions in which he works and sleeps; “in soot I sleep”. By repeating the word “weep” in this stanza he emphasises the stress and depression this young boy is facing.
Boys of the same social class as the narrator are then introduced to the poem. There’s “little Tom Dacre” who has a dream about “thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack” we can assume these boys are all poor and have no family to rely upon, hence they have no choice but to work. Their skills are considered financially unsuccessful and so they are therefore powerless. They are being taken advantage of in a capitalist society.
Religious imagery is used heavily in young Tom Dacre’s dream when an angel opens their coffins and “set them all free” the poem then goes on to depict these boys enjoying a life in heaven strongly contrasted to their previous life as chimney sweepers; the colour black is contrasted with the colour white. The angel represents a religious power which tells tom that if he is a “good boy” and works hard he will be promised a wonderful life in heaven, this mimics the social power in young toms life and what the angel asks of him could be seen to mimic what a capitalist employer would ask of him.
Through the boys dream, Blake condemns the capitalist society by using dramatic irony; the reader knows that Tom’s dream is not a true promise about their future life, but Tom doesn’t understand that so wakes up “happy and warm” ready for a day of work. By criticising the bleak conditions of child labour and by making the reader empathise with the lower class children he attacks and reveals the unfairness of a capitalist society.
