This poem titled 'The Chimney
Sweeper' appears in the collection Songs of Experience by William Blake and is often read as a
counterpart of 'The Chimney Sweeper' in Songs of Innocence. Through this
poem Blake criticizes the institutions of the society which exploit small
children. The tone of the poem is sarcastic. The poem presents the picture of a
‘little black thing’ standing in the midst of snow. This immediately brings to
mind the contrast presented by a dirty black thing in the pristine snow. But
this ‘little black thing’ is in fact a child, a chimney sweeper who is covered
in snow. Blake refers to the child as a ‘thing’ to show the society’s
indifference towards these little children. The child is crying ‘weep’ ‘weep’.
This is a reference to the cry of chimney sweepers who are often so young that
they pronounce ‘weep’ instead of ‘sweep’. Blake days that the child is crying
‘weep’ ‘weep’ in ‘notes of woe’ which means that the child is actually in pain
and therefore weeping. Then the voice of a concerned adult asks the child where
his parents were. The child replies that they had gone to the church to pray.
The child then
speaks about the miseries of his life. He says that since he was happy and
played on the heath and ‘smiled amongst the winter’s snow’, his parents sold
him as a chimney sweeper. Winter in England is very harsh and is often referred
to as a symbol of suffering and death. Blake says that the child smiled even in
the winter’s snow which shows the capacity of children to remain happy
irrespective of the circumstances. But it does not mean that they cannot feel
pain and this is what adults fail to see. So the child says that his parents
clothed him in the ‘clothes of death’. This refers to his dress which is black
with soot and also to the hazardous occupation of the chimney sweepers which
leads to the death of many children. The child says that they taught him to
sing the ‘notes of woe’ again referring to the cry of the chimney sweepers
which for the child is equivalent to weeping.
Now the child
says that since he is happy and sings and dances his parents the adults think
that they have done no injury to him. This again goes back to the child’s
capacity to remain happy at all circumstances. Although he is now a chimney
sweeper and is suffering he does not express it outwardly and all the adults
see is a happy child singing and dancing. Blake here points out the unfeeling
attitude of the adults towards children and their inability to understand the psychology
of a small child. Finally the child says that his parents have gone to the
church to ‘praise God and His Priest and King’ who make a heaven out of the
misery of the children. In the last two lines Blake attacks the institutions of
the Church and the Monarchy. These institutions of society exploit innocent
children and enjoy the benefits of their toil. But in turn the children are
left uncared for and they live a life of misery.
