The Chimney Sweeper
by
William Blake
(Poem & Summary & Analysis)
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.
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.”
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
locked up in coffins of black;
And by came an
Angel who had a bright key,
And he opened 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.
Though the morning
was cold, Tom was happy & warm;
So if all do their
duty, they need not fear harm.
'The chimney Sweeper' by William Blake
presents a picture of the evils of the world. The French Revolution and the
evil effects of Britain's industrialization had opened Blake's eyes to the
tyranny and exploitation of the world. The growing poverty of laborers and the
inhuman treatment, meted out to them were enough to move Blake's heart. The
poverty compelled many fathers to sell their children, to master sweepers, who
employed these children on poor payment. In those days it was a common sight,
to see the children sweeping the soot of chimneys, even when fire was burning
below in the fire place. It was the inhuman atrocities of this type, that led
Blake to write this poem.
The speaker, in the poem, is a young
chimney sweeper. The speaker narrates his tragic tale, that he lost his mother,
and his father sold him to a master sweeper, when he was too young to cry
"weep, weep, weep". The speaker then tells us, how one of his fellow
sweepers, Tom Dacre cried, when his curly hair was shaved. The speaker consoles
Tom, that as his hair is cut, his white hair will not be soot stained. That very
night, when Tom sleeps, he has a sweet dream. He finds thousands of his fellow
sweepers locked up in black coffins. Then there comes an angel with bright keys,
who opens the coffins and sets them all free. The children float happily in the
air and sport there. The angel tells them, that if they behave properly, they
will get fatherly treatment from the Almighty. The next day, though it is cold
outside, Tom feels the warmth, imparted by the dream and he goes peacefully to
brush the chimneys. The poem ends on a didactic note, with an emphasis on the
dictum "Do your duty, if you want to achieve real joy."
The laborers of the factories had to
suffer from the unhealthy atmosphere. The condition of the chimney sweepers was
worse; they, being the little boys, could not stand the choking chimneys. The
inhuman treatment, meted out to them was worse. They had to wake up during the
whole night and go on sweeping until noon. At home they slept on poor beds and
were fed poorly.
The poem is a replica or the realistic picture
of the industrialized England. The coffin of soot, in which Tom saw his fellow
workers locked up, is nothing but the coating of soot, that stuck on their body,
when they came out after sweeping the chimney. The poet uses the phrase
"The coffin of soot", which is suggestive of extreme peril that
lurked in the work, the little boys did. Another important phrase "Then
naked and white" as the children went up naked into the chimney, to put on
clothes was to invite more danger from fire. The soot sticks on their naked
body and so their whole body should be purged of it. That is why, the chimney
sweepers are said to be having a complete wash in the river and rising to the
cloud. The poem ends with a moral uttering "So if all do their duty, they
need not fear harm".
In form as in thought Blake was in
complete revolt against the conventions of the 18th century. He does
not follow the set patterns of Neo-classical poetry. The poet uses a special
blank verse of his own, which is hardly distinguishable from rhythmical prose. Accordingly,
the phraseology and words used relate to common man's language. The poem is
also remarkable for its brevity of style. To conclude, the poem is an
expression of the bitter observation, communicated in a style, bereft of artificial
decorum of neo-classicism of the 18th century
‘The Chimney Sweeper’ was written in
1789, during the French and Industrial Revolutions. It is made up of six
stanzas of four lines each (called a quatrain).
These quatrains follow a specific rhythmic pattern- AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH
IIJJ KKLL. The poem also follows a
musical diction, which makes the poem easily sung. Misery, death, and hope are
the major themes of this poem. The poem presents the miseries of children. It
is through the mouth of two young speakers, the poet conveys his idea, that one
should not lose hope. They are seen unhappy with their job, but later they
accept their fate after having that vision and, somehow their lives become easy
for them. They believe that their hard work would surely pay them in the long
run.
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