The Chimney Sweeper | Songs of experience | Summary and Analysis

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.  

The Chimney Sweeper | Songs of Innocence | Summary and Analysis

The poem “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake appears in his collection of poems titled Songs of Innocence. It is written in the form of a story which is narrated by a small child who works as a chimney sweeper. During Blake’s time the English society employed little, almost infant children as chimney sweepers. Their small size made them the perfect tools to go down the narrow chimneys and clean them while the children themselves remained covered in black soot. Many of these children also faced premature death owing to injuries and constant inhalation of the chimney fumes. They were not cared for and lived in hunger and poverty. The poem depicts the innocence of a small child who can still dream about angels in spite of a cruel society which imposes a life of misery upon him.

The narrator begins by telling the story of his own life. His mother died when he was very young and his father sold him as a chimney sweeper when he could barely utter the word ‘sweep’ and cried ‘weep’ ‘weep’ instead. This refers to the cry of chimney sweepers who go down the street crying ‘sweep’ ‘sweep’, offering their services. But they are often so young that they can only pronounce the word as ‘weep’ ‘weep’. Ironically, the word ‘weep’ here also indicates that the child is actually crying out of pain and hunger. The child says that he sweeps chimneys and goes to bed covered in soot.

The child goes on and narrates the story of Tom Dacre, a young boy who is new to the world of chimney sweepers. His curly white hair is compared to the fleece of a lamb reinforcing the idea of innocence as the motifs of a lamb and a child often represent. He cried when his head was shaved. But the narrator, who already has some experience, comforts his new comrade saying that if he does not have any hair on his head the soot cannot spoil his white hair. This again indicates a child’s innocent logic that he uses to look at misery with a positive attitude.

Then the narrator says that on that very night Tom Dacre had a nightmare. He saw thousands of chimney sweepers along with his fellows- Dick, Joe, Ned and Jack, locked in black coffins. This nightmare may be interpreted as a result of a claustrophobic experience that Tom Dacre may have faced the very first time he went down a chimney. A black coffin also symbolizes death. This again shows the near death experience that the children undergo while they sweep the chimneys.

However, a child’s imaginative capacity is powerful enough to surpass a nightmare and thus Tom Dacre dreams that an angel comes with a key and liberates them from their coffins. They find themselves upon a green plain and run through it down to the river where they wash off their soot and emerge clean and naked, leaving behind their bags and tools. Nakedness is again a symbol of an innocent and pure state of being. Then the children rise upon the clouds and play with the wind, suggesting an image where the children themselves can be viewed as angels. Then the angel tells Tom that if he is a good boy God will always remain by his side.

Thus Tom Dacre and the other children wake up to a dark and cold morning and collect their bags and brushes to go to work. This brings back the image of the harsh reality that the children live in. But Tom feels happy and warm as he now believes that if he does his duty he need not fear harm. The last line brings the tale to a conclusion by providing a moral as is common in children’s stories. But Blake also uses this line to criticize the hypocrisy if the society. It teaches poor and miserable children to do their duty while it reaps the benefit of their labour and then ignores their plight.