Poetry

THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER: (1789)

WILLIAM BLAKE
1757 - 1827

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.

Summary:

Reading for meaning – high level

Many of Blake’s poems are narrated by children.

Ironically, they are part of an anthology: Songs of Innocence. Ironic because, while he writes about children, who are “innocent”, Blake’s poems typically depict how society tarnishes them – no longer innocent.

The Chimney Sweeper is narrated by a child who describes his life as an orphan. We are introduced to another child chimney sweeper, Tom Dacre who has a dream one night about chimney sweepers in coffins, flying angels and floating in the clouds. The angel speaks to Tom and tells him to be good and work hard. Tom then wakes and goes to work as usual with the narrator.

Reading for meaning – in depth (with comments)

The Chimney Sweeper, by its title, is narrated by a Chimney Sweeper. 200 years ago, at Blake’s time of writing, the job was done by children. (See later about chimney sweepers).

Stanza one:

The boy tells us that he is an orphan, as many chimney sweepers were:

When my mother died I was very young,

He also tells us he was “very young”. Very young is probably three or four? Highly likely. It is also pertinent to point out that life expectancy around 1750s (slightly earlier than the poem), was less than 37 years.

He tells us about how he was sold into this profession by his father. The inference is that the speaker is a slave. Maybe his father could not look after his children after their mother died?

Blake uses something called metonymy – using an image that is closely related to something else, when he again refers to how young the narrator was when his father sold him:

“my tongue
Could scarcely cry”

the tongue refers to the speaker’s voice.

As mentioned, it was usual for chimney sweeps to be children, they were small and could crawl up chimneys easily. He sweeps chimneys and sleeps in soot.

This is a powerful image on several levels.

The boy will be dirty from working in soot, and usually chimney sweepers slept under the blankets they used to collect the soot. This was referred to as, “sleeping in soot”.

So, the boy would be covered in soot from the chimney as well as from sleeping under it.

Stanza 2:

The focus shifts from the narrator to his friend, Tom Dacre.

Blake uses a simile, that Tom’s hair:

“curled like a lamb's back”

Tom’s hair was curly, and probably soft, like lamb’s wool. Lambs are a symbol of innocence. The young children, chimney sweepers, start off life, innocent, but then their innocence is “shaved” away.

The boys’ heads would be shaved to prevent soot from getting into their hair.

The narrator comforts Tom when he tells him,

“Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."

“White hair” carries a double meaning, perhaps Tom’s hair was blond – white. Now the soot will not spoil it – dirty it. White is another symbol of purity, innocence. So by shaving it off, the soot would not corrupt it and not corrupt Tom’s innocence.

Blake frequently explores the loss of innocence in his poetry and the darkness and corruptness of society.

Stanza 3:

The first lines simply tell us that Tom had a dream, where is saw that

“That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.”

Blake has chosen generic names to further emphasis the number, “thousands”, of young children who were chimney sweepers.

The grammatical rhythm of the last line,

Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.”

creates the impression of a child talking, correctly we would say, all of them were.

Blake uses a metaphor of a black coffin to describe the chimneys where they work. It has a dark meaning as the children are boxed in, the chimneys are filled with soot, black is associated with death. The mortality rate for these children was high. The profession was dangerous, some would get stuck, others fall to their death and the soot was carcinogenic.

So literally, the children were working in coffins where they would no doubt die.

Stanza 4

The atmosphere of the poem changes,

We see an angel, an angel who holds a key. This is probably a biblical reference, Matthew 16:19, Jesus gives Peter the key to the kingdom of heaven and now Peter is giving the boys the key to heaven.

The initial image maybe uplifting, but again the deeper meaning is about death. Only in death, will these children escape their “coffins”.

Blake creates an image of heaven where these boys are now clean and shinning,

“Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.”

They will be free when they die.

The bright, clean image of the children in heaven is shocking against the dark, black, sooty image of their living world.

Blake may again be referring to the innocence of the children being rediscovered when they go to heaven.

Stanza 5

The children / chimney sweeps are described as “naked”. A reference to purity and innocence, as they came into the world.

They now have no baggage. This image can be seen on a couple of levels, they have no baggage – sadness, weariness of the world, and they will also not need the bags that carry the tools of their trade. They are finally free.

Again, this emphasises that death will free them from their position.

The second part of the stanza narrates a conversation between the Angel and Tom. He is told that if he is good and works hard, then he will “have God for his father”, go to heaven and always be happy.

“And the angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father, and never want joy.”

The word “want” here means lack, so, if Tom behaves, he will never be deprived of happiness.

This is a strange line as on one hand, it holds a biblical sense, if we are good then we will go to heaven, however, it holds undertones of servitude, if the boys are good and do their job well, then they will be rewarded.

Stanza 6

The poem turns again, rather abruptly as Tom awakes and picks up his tools to go to work with the narrator.

It is as if he is suddenly woken from his dream, as often happens, and faces the reality of his life and day ahead.

“Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.”

Although it is cold, Tom “was happy and warm”. He has just awoken from a wonderful dream and goes to work with that thought in his head.

On the surface it seems that it is dreams that keep the children happy. However, Blake uses irony here. The children suffer physically from the dangers and hardships of their work, and they also suffer mentally.

While they angel tells Tom not to fear, he should fear as the work is dangerous. This is further emphasised through Blake’s use of a slant rhyme, “warm” and “harm”. While these words look the same, they do not rhyme perfectly, so this creates an unsettling feeling for the reader.

Summary:

Once again, Blake uses images of innocence, the children, lambs, angels, white, heaven and sets then against the harsh reality, corruptness and death that runs through society, black coffins, soot, harm.

A blatant criticism of the industrial revolution.

Form:

Quatrains (verses of 4 lines)

Rhyming couplets: AA, BB, CC, DD, etc.

The poem opens with a singsong rhythm; Blake uses anapests (two unstressed followed by one stressed syllable):

When my moth / er died / I was ve / ry young

Rather an incongruous rhythm for such a tragic subject!

Meter:
Blake uses a mixture of iambs and anapests throughout the poem. To a poetry purist, this breaks rules, however, Blake frequently employs this mixture in his poems. This breaks up the rhythm and can shock the ear, which reflects how the reader may be shocked by some of the descriptions.

Structure:
The poem is written in six stanza quatrains. This creates a sense of symmetry and structured rhythm.

Rhyme:
Each stanza is made up of rhyming couplets: AA, BB, CC etc. This also adds to the singsong nature of the poem.

However, as the poem progresses, the rhyming couplets become less pronounced, while the written form of the words matches, their rhyme is irregular, a slant rhyme or half-rhyme. Sometimes this is called an imperfect rhyme, it creates unease and unsettles the reader/listener.

Imagery, symbols:

Chimney Sweeper

Coffins

Lambs

Angels

Black

White