Chimney -Sweeper, The 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, and 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, and that very night,

As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight! --

That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and 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, and let them all free;

Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing, they run,

And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.



Then naked and 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, and never want joy.



And so Tom awoke, and we rose in the dark,

And got with our bags and our brushes to work.

Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm:

So, if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.

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I believe this poem was to eat the lines of mercy a day after the morning before the night of the last sun.

| Posted on 2009-10-21 | by a guest

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the first peom william wrote in 1789 he was for child labor
but now in 1794 he is againt the cruelty of child labor

| Posted on 2009-09-21 | by a guest

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you guys are really good students you really helped me understand this poem thanks alot love you!!!

| Posted on 2009-08-26 | by a guest

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The person that said:
i have to us this dam poem for a class project. It will be good probably
| Posted on 2009-04-13 | by a guest
Lern 2 englishs.

| Posted on 2009-07-22 | by a guest

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To me the poem seems to one of the very important tools as far as fighting against child labour is concerned and it claery shows what happens to these little boys who have no body to take care of them, blake shows the strong potrayal of what is going on even in todays world. kazinja dar es salaam

| Posted on 2009-06-30 | by a guest

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it is a good poem
the only flaw in it is that its advertising child labour

| Posted on 2009-06-24 | by a guest

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there is a rhyming scheme in this poem i am trying to remeber what it is called?
"...I was very young"
"... while yet my tounge"
when the the two lines only rhyme with the ending word what is that called?

| Posted on 2009-06-14 | by a guest

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I think this poem is far less optimistic than the general consensus seems to be. The final line 'so if all do their duty they need not fear harm' seems infact to be an either overly naive response as a summary of the poem, which seems too overtly simplistic for Blake, or it could be a cynical and angry response to a religious idea that justifies the suffering of these children. The final line is begging for a Marxist style analysis.
Also the line "'weep, 'weep" is reapeated in many of the following poems of innocence, implying something of the ecchoing of innocence that is shown in the 'ecchoing green' earlier in the collection.

| Posted on 2009-06-09 | by a guest

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You guys are all tools. Library kids to say the least. Go farm kara scrubs

| Posted on 2009-04-23 | by a guest

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i have to us this dam poem for a class project. It will be good probably

| Posted on 2009-04-13 | by a guest

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First, Nancy Arnold, if you have nothing to tell us except for your own stupid problems, don't tell us anything. We don't care about if you go to lodge school or not. Okay, I totaly agree that this poem is a work of art.
There's little Tom Dacre who cried when his head,
That'd curl'd like a lamb's back, was shav'd: so i said,
Hush tom never mind it for when you head's bare
you know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.
I think this stanza meant innocnece. Lamb= innocence white hair=innocence

| Posted on 2009-04-06 | by a guest

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Dear Nancy Arnold,I think it was very stupid on your part to express yourself in such an unruly manner.Please if you have nothing intellectually inclined to say,don't say anything at all.Please watch your language

| Posted on 2009-03-31 | by a guest

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me and emily think this poem is a gift from god. and so is william blake =].

| Posted on 2009-03-26 | by a guest

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The Chimney Sweeper from the Songs of Innocence has a happy and hopeful tone. this poem diplays the true innocence of childhood, as the author wirtes that "the angel told Tom ife he is a good boy he will have God as his father and never want joy" this creates a sinless state, someone free from moral wrong, as is true with innocence. This poem is being used for Module C in the HSC for the Elective 2: Into the World. This poem from 'Songs of Innocence' is deeply contrasted against the poems from 'Songs of Experience'.

| Posted on 2009-03-25 | by a guest

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This poem, in contrast to the songs of experience, has a much more hopeful tone. Blake is trying to show how poorly the young children are being treated. Sold into basic slavery, not even old enough to pronounce "sweep" correctly which is an acquired dialect that can only be pronounced correctly with age. In stead the children cry " weep!" begging for sympathy from the readers.
This poem also shows the faith and hope the children have in God. The angel tells Tom that if he does his duty he will have God as his father, someone he didn't have when he was growing up. " He'd have God for his father, and never want joy." this provides more than enough reason for Tom to continue with his dreadful duties in order to one day finally be happy with his creator.

| Posted on 2009-03-13 | by a guest

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I learned about this poem in my AP Lit class. I find it to be absolutely amazing. William Blake put this poem in a newspaper for the wealthy and educated to read. The point was for them to help make a difference. These little kids at only 3 and 4 years old would clean chimneys naked because they were the only one to fit. The kids would die in only months because of all the dust the breathed in. Blake wanted change, and help so he wrote this poem sarcastically and in hope!!

| Posted on 2009-02-05 | by a guest

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i think the poem is wonderful. =) but i need more explanations. i haven't read it yet. =)

| Posted on 2009-01-27 | by a guest

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I think this is shift the inneccent kids from sadness to hope and to feel like a Dove.As we have hard time in life, something happens and give us hope so that we can continue with joy and happiness although we have problems!!

| Posted on 2009-01-25 | by a guest

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I think "the chimney sweeper" is definetly about the poor conditions the children fought with hope! The poem is told with such a powerful optimistic outlook and is very diverse from the later written version "the chimney sweeper" in "the songs of experience". Each person sees a different look but looking at it negatively will not be the way the author has written it for us to comprehend! try a brighter way that maybe it was true that this was they're hope and not some child labor law being violated in the early 1789.

| Posted on 2009-01-08 | by a guest

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A child who gathers pleasure from things thought to be a burden (the snow). To make up for his "innapropriate behavior," His parents dressed him up in a suit and tie (the clothes of death-what you wear to/at a funeral) and forced the church upon him (the songs of woe-songs sung at mass about pretty dreadful topics if you think about it-Jesus Dying, A wrathful God, etc).
He says that because he likes to dance and sing (activities thought to be "the devil" back in old times). That his parents go to pray for him. He doesn't understand why they would want to live such a frivolous life to get into a heaven where all the fun things in life aren't allowed.

| Posted on 2008-11-02 | by a guest

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This is William Blake's thought of life drowning with a boy

| Posted on 2008-10-14 | by a guest

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Blake's writings in general all point out to the attrocities faced by people in one way or another.In the Chimney sweper,he only talks of life's hardships and a way of keeping onseself going.It can be a person's belief or just a dream of an angel guiding while on the other hand at times to keep on going some people need someone to blame,so there comes the churh.. both ways it's only to keep on living..

| Posted on 2008-10-12 | by a guest

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The central theme in ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ featured in the ‘Song of Innocence’ collection is the fact that if you live a life doing your ‘duties’, you will go to heaven. Already, this shows naivety, as it has such a simple meaning. This is something that a child is more likely to understand, and being part of the ‘Songs of Innocence’, this seems a realistic central theme. However, whilst the theme in the ‘Innocence’ collection has a very simple theme, the poem featuring in the ‘Songs of Experience’ collection is questioning the work of God. It also questions religion, showing that adulthood has a much more complicated view on not just Blake’s subjects, but any topic or matter.
A quote that shows naivety in the ‘Innocence’ collection is:
‘And the angel told Tom is he’d be a good boy,
He’d have God for his father and never want joy’
This quote not only proves the central theme of doing good and going to heaven, but it also shows the lack of awareness that Tom and other children have. Firstly, Blake uses the word ‘angel’. The poem shows us that as a child, we are simply taught to accept everything we are told. By including the word ‘angel’, Blake is proving this theory. This is because, in adulthood, we would question the subject and ask, “is there such a thing as an angel?”. A child, however, would believe in such a thing, even with no reason for doing so, just as they also believe in Father Christmas or the Tooth Fairy. Blake also suggests that ‘Little Tom Dacre’ will be rewarded is he does good things and lives a good life, by saying that Tom ‘will have God as his father’. As a very young child, Tom was sold by his father, as it illustrates in the early stages of the poem. Therefore, if Tom understands his responsibilities as a chimney sweeper and a neglected child, God will honour him and become the father that Tom grew up without and missed in his childhood. However, a quote contrasting the previous passage and also belonging to the ‘Experience’ collection is:
‘They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe’
Whilst in the ‘Songs of Innocence’ the quote talks about rewarding those who accept their responsibilities, this quote talks about the opposite, and juxtaposes the other. This quote talks about punishing people and accepting the fact that they won’t be rewarded. By clothing someone in ‘clothes of death’, Blake is showing the audience that although it is the parents’ responsibility to clothe a child, the boy subject of this poem is not being clothed in real clothes, but metaphorical clothes of ‘death’. This shows us that the parents of this little boy have not only neglected the child, but their responsibility to look after the boy, also.

| Posted on 2008-10-10 | by a guest

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This is about William blake saying NO to child labour.

| Posted on 2008-10-07 | by a guest

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Speaker: an abandoned child
General Tone: Hopeful
The child has an accepting attitude toward the fact that his father sold him. He is innocent and pure, so he hasn't had the opportunity to experience life and know that this act towards him is bad.
Tom's dream was to teach the kids to accept life and be good because the only way to have some justice and happiness so great that they would not want anything else is death.
I know it sounds harsh, but you have to remember that these were innocent little kids that saw this as hope in heaven. To them it was something magnificent.

| Posted on 2008-09-26 | by a guest

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my geart grandad was a chimly sweeper im so prord of him what he went though .

| Posted on 2008-09-19 | by a guest

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i nancy arnold am a meber of lodge school on behalf of the poem i htink it is shit hole

| Posted on 2008-09-19 | by a guest

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The Chimney Sweeper is not a poem about a child being given false hope, but rather about the true hope that he holds in God. Though sold into child labour, he finds comfort in the fact that "He'd have God for his father". The speaker of the poem, presumably an older child in the same position as Tom, provides an adult outlook on life, accepting his life and comforting Tom Dacre. The use of the mispronunciation of "sweep" shows how young and innocent he was when he was sold, but he quickly comes to terms with reality: "So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep".
Blake's message in this poem is that no matter what position you're in, there is still hope in God who sets you free. In opposition t the "Songs of Experience" poem also named The Chimney Sweeper, it shows a posotive outlook on life, with the children making the best of what they have, and not fearing death.

| Posted on 2008-09-13 | by a guest

.: chimney sweeper and Tom :.

Tom Dacre in this poem represents innocence and children's need to believe, and hope. Though his predicament is harsh and demanding his dream gives him the ability to wake up and carry on. The speaker in the poem though a child himself is slightly more detached from Tom's dream, he seems to have realised that their harsh reality cannot be escaped, and appears sympathetic towards Tom who will also make this discovery. And so the poem's message seems to be that chldren are being deprived of their own innocence, (this is also echoed when the speaker assumes role of parent by comforting Tom) also their ablity to hope for better things. Tom's dream is flawed because although it comforts him, the fact that he wakes up and again assumes the role of a chimney sweeper asserts that his dream is just that, his reality on the other hand is there when he wakes.

| Posted on 2008-05-10 | by a guest

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The Chimney Sweeper in the Songs of Innocence is wholly set apart from its fellow poems in the collection in terms of its exploration of the abuse of innocence in place of celebrating innocence. The poem is essentially about innocence rather than being innocent in nature, as Blake chooses to employ a narrator who is clearly of a more experienced mind set in terms of being at least partially, if not entirely, aware of the deception and false hope that is being fed to Little Tom Dacre by the angel of the poem.

The poem at face value could be seen to be a glorious celebration of heaven in terms of the pastoral imagery Blake utilizes, phrases such as "leaping" and "sporting in the wind" being uncomfortably reminiscent of those seen in his more endearing poems such as "The Ecchoing Green" and "The Nurse's Song". However,the poem's true intention lies in exposing the capacity of the christian religion to enforce the dangerous charges of cruelty and injustice, as the Angel (usually used as a symbol of divine guidance) is reinvented as an instigator of society's murderous fiction. Indeed, this is reflected in the line "if all do their duty, they need not fear harm", which ultimately reflects Blake's bitter indignation at the church's willingness to collude with other forms of tyranny to bring about the dire consequence of children being made victim to their own innocence.

| Posted on 2007-06-09 | by a guest

.: The Chimney Sweeper :.

Under Romanticism, poetry became one of the most important modes of creative expression. This is because verse seemed to offer a direct way of conveying personal emotion. It was this directness and lack of constraint, which the Romantic audience valued most. Throughout Europe poets became heroes, quasi-mythic personages in their own lifetime, or after their usually untimely deaths. Towards the end of the Romantic era, poetry began to take a more nationalist tone. Blake was one of the foremost writers of this era.

The poem The Chimney Sweeper fits perfectly into this style of writing. A high use of emotion is prevalent throughout. The first two stanzas are especially emotive showing the reader the plight of a very young child sold into chimney sweeping. The use of strong images like the mother dying and the child crying help the reader feel and empathize with the character more.

One of the appealing points of The Chimney Sweeper is that it contains many universal themes that a wide audience can relate to. These are youth and inherent innocence, death, freedom and religion. To adequately portray these themes, Blake utilizes many literary techniques.

| Posted on 2007-05-27 | by a guest

.: The Chimney-Sweeper :.

This poem is about youth and inherent innocence. The boy was sold almost as a baby and has learned to accept the life that was given him.
Tom Dacre, who is younger than the narrator, need to be comforted. A lamb, a (religious) symbol for purity and innocence, is used to describe him. The narrator unselfishly takes the position of a parental figure for Tom and comforts him in their horrible situation. We see another symbol for purity in Tom's white hair. White is purity.
Tom slept quietly after this, like a baby. His dream was of the children escaping and living in a utopia and rising to heaven. The two stanzas that are completely about his dream are perfect nursery-rhyme rhythm. The rest of the poem is not. In the dream the children are allowed to wash themselves of their soot, their sins. Being children, they are already innocent and pure, but they are enabled to become more so in this utopia. Where it says, "never want joy," it means that he'd have plenty of it and never want any more.
When Tom wakes up to dark reality, his dream is still fresh in his mind as he picks up his bags and works in the soot. The last line, "So, if all do their duty, they need not fear harm." shows how innocent Tom and the rest of the children must be to believe this. They believe life to be fair and have not had experience to disprove it.

| Posted on 2005-12-01 | by Approved Guest