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Chimney Sweeper
Number 17 of 200 copies handset in SB Windsor and Rockwell Medium and printed in black on red and grey Oxford coloured papers. Stapled into black paper covers, cut flush, with a paper label printed in black on the front. Taurus Poem No.10;
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First published January 1, 1789
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About the author
William Blake
1,231 books3,203 followersWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake's work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts.
Blake's prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the language". His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced." Although he only once travelled any further than a day's walk outside London over the course of his life, his creative vision engendered a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced 'imagination' as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".
Once considered mad for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is highly regarded today for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical and mystical currents that underlie his work. His work has been characterized as part of the Romantic movement, or even "Pre-Romantic", for its largely having appeared in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the established Church, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Emanuel Swedenborg.
Despite these known influences, the originality and singularity of Blake's work make it difficult to classify. One 19th century scholar characterised Blake as a "glorious luminary", "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors."
Blake's prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the language". His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced." Although he only once travelled any further than a day's walk outside London over the course of his life, his creative vision engendered a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced 'imagination' as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".
Once considered mad for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is highly regarded today for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical and mystical currents that underlie his work. His work has been characterized as part of the Romantic movement, or even "Pre-Romantic", for its largely having appeared in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the established Church, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Emanuel Swedenborg.
Despite these known influences, the originality and singularity of Blake's work make it difficult to classify. One 19th century scholar characterised Blake as a "glorious luminary", "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors."
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 28, 2015
So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.
A poem that eerily depicts the suffering of young children, innocent souls sold into servitude, experienced under the oppressive boot of their employers. This should serve as grim reminder of the horrors brought on by those who diminish people to their mere utility.
August 6, 2021
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 ……
With the publication of ‘Songs of Innocence’ in 1789 Blake created a swirl in the poetry-loving circle of England. It was esteemd not only for the reason that its poems with ornamental drawings were etched on copper plates and printed by the poet-artist himself, but also for the outstanding and unprompted nature of the lyrics that helped readers to recollect happily about their childhood.
Apart from their poetic qualities the lyrics also presented certain social pictures which they could ignore in no way.
‘The Chimney Sweeper’ is a poem which slightly moves away from the fundamental hypothesis of ‘Songs of Innocence’.
In his poem Blake deals ‘chimney sweepers’ who have received the meanest variety of maltreatment at the hands of the society. The poet first presents the speaker, a petite boy, who has to do the work of chimney sweeping. He is wretched enough to lose his mother while moderately young and thereby remains dispossessed of motherly warmth. His father sells him off, showing neither liability nor concern. Consequently, he is forced to join the force of chimney sweepers and to go out in wintry mornings when he could barely utter ‘sweep’ to draw the attention of customers. In place of ‘sweep’ he pronounces “weep’ which literally urges people to shed tears for his lamentable condition. His squalor is laid bare, without any attempt at concealment of shame, when he says that he cleans the insides of chimney walls and that has to sleep ‘in soot’ which is as much a cause of mortification to him as to those who have employed him in such offensive jobs.
Thereafter, to reflect upon the disingenuousness of social welfare and improvement, Tom Dacre another fruitless boy who is even younger than our initial chimney sweeper, is introduced.
Had Tom not been in an orphan-like state, there would have arisen no necessity of inducting such a child to such a disgusting job as chimney sweeping. The only treasure of Tom’s life is his ‘white hair’ which is soft and curly like that growing on ‘a Iamb’s back’. Incidentally, the word ‘lamb’ reflects Tom’s innocent nature in a befitting manner. However, Tom has to sacrifice this treasure (instead of wearing a helmet) as a precondition to his admission into chimney sweeping. Like the speaker he too has to rise in the dark and to get ready with bag and brush to begin the day’s hard work.
Subsequently, one might say manifestly that Tom’s life, like the speaker’s is similarly one of stark anguish and unrelieved misery
In both the Chimney Sweeper poems we find, on the one hand, children who run and play, ‘wash in a river and shine in the sun, and trance of climbing on clouds and sporting in the wind, and, in contrast, get up when the obscurity of the night is not yet over, get ready for work with bags and brushes ignoring the chill, walk from house to house crying ‘weep!’ weep!’ (short for ‘sweep’. i.e. chimney sweep) with the intention of drawing customers’ notice, and lie down to sleep, after a day’s strenuous work on bags filled with soot.
The poem, thus, reveals both the delights and desolations of young chimney sweepers, gloom more than elations --- ecstasies which can scarcely recompense the paroxysms of sorrows.
It is a poem in which Blake does not refrain from arraigning the English society. Since, yet, it is a part of the ‘Songs of Innocence’ and meant by and large for children, the denunciation is somewhat tempered and circuitous. It is expressed primarily by the way of life spent by two children-one who has already been acquainted with the hard and dismal job of chimney sweeping and the other, Tom Dacre, who will soon be introduced into such work and compelled to experience its raw taste.
Blake indicts the society that forces a child to work when he could barely utter the word ‘chimneysweep’. The distasteful nature of his work is reflected in the speaker’s words: ‘in soot I sleep’.
Dacre’s need for rising even before the fading of the darkness of the night and for braving the chill of the morning are other matters through which the measure of meagerness of the society has been accurately exacted by Blake.
Another way of social denunciation has been divulged through the depiction of the close shaving of the children’s head thereby removing their pale- coloured and soft hair which they liked to guard conscientiously. The society did it in the name of protecting their hair so that it could not catch fire from ‘pockets of smouldering soot’ although the saine could have been done were the children provided with helmets or such-like head covers.
The poet thus, questions the heartlessness of the society through the mention of these practices. Blake’s deep sense of indignation is conspicuous when these young and naive children, are subjected to the malicious and ruthless ritual such as head-shaving.
It is the unprivileged and depressed - those prevented from rising socially or economically, who form the centre of interest in Blake’s poem ‘The Chimney Sweeper’. Their distress and torment are presented most outstandingly through certain characters which are not the creation of the poet’s imagination but which have their basis on reality. One important thing about them is that the more they suffer the more they reveal the social condition of England in the second half of the eighteenth century.
As the population of England increased fourfold, jobs became inadequate and even children had to be employd in insanitary and repugnant trades to facilitate their living. There would’ve been a hint of succour, had the anguish been restricted to a handful of boys. However, industrial intensification, while it swelled the pockets of a few, increased variously the wretchedness of many.
The poet admitted that there were ‘thousands of sweepers’ who were locked up in ‘coffins of black’. The phrase pithily sums up the circumstance of these inopportune children, for ‘coffins’ signify their death-like state, despite being alive. Their ‘confinement’ evidently points to their lack of emancipation and ‘black’ symbolizes subsistence polluted by ‘soot’.
The poet’s delineation of melancholy is, thus, quite moving.
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.
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 ……
With the publication of ‘Songs of Innocence’ in 1789 Blake created a swirl in the poetry-loving circle of England. It was esteemd not only for the reason that its poems with ornamental drawings were etched on copper plates and printed by the poet-artist himself, but also for the outstanding and unprompted nature of the lyrics that helped readers to recollect happily about their childhood.
Apart from their poetic qualities the lyrics also presented certain social pictures which they could ignore in no way.
‘The Chimney Sweeper’ is a poem which slightly moves away from the fundamental hypothesis of ‘Songs of Innocence’.
In his poem Blake deals ‘chimney sweepers’ who have received the meanest variety of maltreatment at the hands of the society. The poet first presents the speaker, a petite boy, who has to do the work of chimney sweeping. He is wretched enough to lose his mother while moderately young and thereby remains dispossessed of motherly warmth. His father sells him off, showing neither liability nor concern. Consequently, he is forced to join the force of chimney sweepers and to go out in wintry mornings when he could barely utter ‘sweep’ to draw the attention of customers. In place of ‘sweep’ he pronounces “weep’ which literally urges people to shed tears for his lamentable condition. His squalor is laid bare, without any attempt at concealment of shame, when he says that he cleans the insides of chimney walls and that has to sleep ‘in soot’ which is as much a cause of mortification to him as to those who have employed him in such offensive jobs.
Thereafter, to reflect upon the disingenuousness of social welfare and improvement, Tom Dacre another fruitless boy who is even younger than our initial chimney sweeper, is introduced.
Had Tom not been in an orphan-like state, there would have arisen no necessity of inducting such a child to such a disgusting job as chimney sweeping. The only treasure of Tom’s life is his ‘white hair’ which is soft and curly like that growing on ‘a Iamb’s back’. Incidentally, the word ‘lamb’ reflects Tom’s innocent nature in a befitting manner. However, Tom has to sacrifice this treasure (instead of wearing a helmet) as a precondition to his admission into chimney sweeping. Like the speaker he too has to rise in the dark and to get ready with bag and brush to begin the day’s hard work.
Subsequently, one might say manifestly that Tom’s life, like the speaker’s is similarly one of stark anguish and unrelieved misery
In both the Chimney Sweeper poems we find, on the one hand, children who run and play, ‘wash in a river and shine in the sun, and trance of climbing on clouds and sporting in the wind, and, in contrast, get up when the obscurity of the night is not yet over, get ready for work with bags and brushes ignoring the chill, walk from house to house crying ‘weep!’ weep!’ (short for ‘sweep’. i.e. chimney sweep) with the intention of drawing customers’ notice, and lie down to sleep, after a day’s strenuous work on bags filled with soot.
The poem, thus, reveals both the delights and desolations of young chimney sweepers, gloom more than elations --- ecstasies which can scarcely recompense the paroxysms of sorrows.
It is a poem in which Blake does not refrain from arraigning the English society. Since, yet, it is a part of the ‘Songs of Innocence’ and meant by and large for children, the denunciation is somewhat tempered and circuitous. It is expressed primarily by the way of life spent by two children-one who has already been acquainted with the hard and dismal job of chimney sweeping and the other, Tom Dacre, who will soon be introduced into such work and compelled to experience its raw taste.
Blake indicts the society that forces a child to work when he could barely utter the word ‘chimneysweep’. The distasteful nature of his work is reflected in the speaker’s words: ‘in soot I sleep’.
Dacre’s need for rising even before the fading of the darkness of the night and for braving the chill of the morning are other matters through which the measure of meagerness of the society has been accurately exacted by Blake.
Another way of social denunciation has been divulged through the depiction of the close shaving of the children’s head thereby removing their pale- coloured and soft hair which they liked to guard conscientiously. The society did it in the name of protecting their hair so that it could not catch fire from ‘pockets of smouldering soot’ although the saine could have been done were the children provided with helmets or such-like head covers.
The poet thus, questions the heartlessness of the society through the mention of these practices. Blake’s deep sense of indignation is conspicuous when these young and naive children, are subjected to the malicious and ruthless ritual such as head-shaving.
It is the unprivileged and depressed - those prevented from rising socially or economically, who form the centre of interest in Blake’s poem ‘The Chimney Sweeper’. Their distress and torment are presented most outstandingly through certain characters which are not the creation of the poet’s imagination but which have their basis on reality. One important thing about them is that the more they suffer the more they reveal the social condition of England in the second half of the eighteenth century.
As the population of England increased fourfold, jobs became inadequate and even children had to be employd in insanitary and repugnant trades to facilitate their living. There would’ve been a hint of succour, had the anguish been restricted to a handful of boys. However, industrial intensification, while it swelled the pockets of a few, increased variously the wretchedness of many.
The poet admitted that there were ‘thousands of sweepers’ who were locked up in ‘coffins of black’. The phrase pithily sums up the circumstance of these inopportune children, for ‘coffins’ signify their death-like state, despite being alive. Their ‘confinement’ evidently points to their lack of emancipation and ‘black’ symbolizes subsistence polluted by ‘soot’.
The poet’s delineation of melancholy is, thus, quite moving.
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.
December 31, 2021
In a very simple language, Blake has described the horrible misery that was faced by the little children of London, whose impoverished parents sold them for a small amount of money, to be made chimney sweepers. Putting their lives at stake and cringed by the fears of dark, which is very usual in little children, they were made to climb up the sooty chimneys and clean them on severely cold days. They had to clean those smut-stained chimneys whose fire, maybe a little while ago, provided warmth and comfort to the wealthy house-owners.
Written in two parts in "The Songs of Innocence and Experience", 'Chimney Sweeper' is a tragic yet beautiful poem.
Written in two parts in "The Songs of Innocence and Experience", 'Chimney Sweeper' is a tragic yet beautiful poem.
January 1, 2024
It is the underpriviledged and depressed children who form the centre of attention in this poem. Their grief and woe are presented most conspicuously through certain characters which are not the creation of the poet's imagination but which have their basis on reality.
Fascinatingly, the more they writhe in agony, the more they divulge the societal situation of England in the second half of the 18th century.
What stands out in the poem? The following –
1) The reader is hit by Blake’s love for freedom and humanism. It is through dreaming that the chimney sweepers get a palate of liberty. Incarceration in the black coffin points out to their life of servitude in which the soot plays a protuberant part. As they are set free, they run and leap, laugh and play, wash and lounge in the sun.
Nothing could give them greater pleasure than this taste of freedom. But for humanism expressed through exposure of social ills the poet would not have taken in hand the case of the chimney sweepers.
They have to rise when darkness has not yet vanished; braving the chill of the morning they have to remain involved in the cleaning of chimneys. And they have to sleep in soot that hides their cheerful figures.
The poet's humanism is exposed when he pleads that they should never be in want of joy and that they should never suffer from harm.
2) The reader is struck by Blake’s treatment of gloom. Nothing can be more sorrowing than the life of the speaker. This boy lost his mother when he was very young; thus, he never knew what is motherly warmth. To add insult to injury, his father sold him to another and thus deprived him of fatherly adoration and care.
He had to join his trade even before he could utter the word 'sweep' to draw the attention of customers. His life is one of misery for he had to clean chimneys and lie in dirt.
Tom Dacre was, essentially, in the same state. His suffering knew no bounds when his curly 'white hair', of which he was proud, was removed before being introduced to the trade of chimneysweeping. All these show that Blake never vacillated to deal with gloom in his poetry.
3) In conclusion, the reader is hit by Blake’s flight of imagination. The life of play and joy which the children tasted in their vision would not have been created had the poet been lacking in his imaginative command. Their rising upon clouds and sporting in the wind, again, was owing to his aptitude for imagination.
This is a dazzling poem, rich in almost all noticeable aspects of romanticism.
Fascinatingly, the more they writhe in agony, the more they divulge the societal situation of England in the second half of the 18th century.
What stands out in the poem? The following –
1) The reader is hit by Blake’s love for freedom and humanism. It is through dreaming that the chimney sweepers get a palate of liberty. Incarceration in the black coffin points out to their life of servitude in which the soot plays a protuberant part. As they are set free, they run and leap, laugh and play, wash and lounge in the sun.
Nothing could give them greater pleasure than this taste of freedom. But for humanism expressed through exposure of social ills the poet would not have taken in hand the case of the chimney sweepers.
They have to rise when darkness has not yet vanished; braving the chill of the morning they have to remain involved in the cleaning of chimneys. And they have to sleep in soot that hides their cheerful figures.
The poet's humanism is exposed when he pleads that they should never be in want of joy and that they should never suffer from harm.
2) The reader is struck by Blake’s treatment of gloom. Nothing can be more sorrowing than the life of the speaker. This boy lost his mother when he was very young; thus, he never knew what is motherly warmth. To add insult to injury, his father sold him to another and thus deprived him of fatherly adoration and care.
He had to join his trade even before he could utter the word 'sweep' to draw the attention of customers. His life is one of misery for he had to clean chimneys and lie in dirt.
Tom Dacre was, essentially, in the same state. His suffering knew no bounds when his curly 'white hair', of which he was proud, was removed before being introduced to the trade of chimneysweeping. All these show that Blake never vacillated to deal with gloom in his poetry.
3) In conclusion, the reader is hit by Blake’s flight of imagination. The life of play and joy which the children tasted in their vision would not have been created had the poet been lacking in his imaginative command. Their rising upon clouds and sporting in the wind, again, was owing to his aptitude for imagination.
This is a dazzling poem, rich in almost all noticeable aspects of romanticism.
November 27, 2024
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 only poem I read for uni and liked it.
It’s about a poor child who lost his mother,
and live a difficult life after his dad sold him
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 only poem I read for uni and liked it.
It’s about a poor child who lost his mother,
and live a difficult life after his dad sold him
April 21, 2021
3.5 stars.
The background to this poem is one of the many social problems that existed in Blake's time—the use of young children as chimney sweepers. Children were often sold at the age of seven to work as chimney sweepers. They were badly treated, with never enough clothes, food or housing. They were placed in constant danger of suffocating or burning, and the soot caused cancer and other serious illnesses that resulted in painful and early deaths. Talks about child labor, you can sense different kinds of emotions in this poem. It is great so far.
The background to this poem is one of the many social problems that existed in Blake's time—the use of young children as chimney sweepers. Children were often sold at the age of seven to work as chimney sweepers. They were badly treated, with never enough clothes, food or housing. They were placed in constant danger of suffocating or burning, and the soot caused cancer and other serious illnesses that resulted in painful and early deaths. Talks about child labor, you can sense different kinds of emotions in this poem. It is great so far.
June 12, 2021
The Chimney Sweeper narrates the sorrow and hardships the little chimney sweepers were suffering during the victorian era. The poet underlines that these boys were very young that they couldn't even pronounce the word sweep by calling it "weep." The repetition of the word weep illustrates the woe and the misery. I let you discover more about this amazing work yourself.
January 17, 2024
The Chimney Sweeper ***** - Wow! 5 stars simply out of respect for that generation of young people who were so badly treated by a society lacking discernment and empathy.
“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..”
“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..”
July 16, 2025
Even though it is a simple poem, it raises moral questions not only about the child labor in the 18th and 19th century England but also about the promise of salvation and heaven to victimize. The dream might make the boy happy , but his real surroundings are very different.Blake wants the reader to be involved and take a stance ; it is up to them to decide if it is an ironic poem or not.
December 11, 2023
I remember reading this poem awhile ago; I don't remember much, but I do recall really loving it and feeling touched by its emphasis, on the people who work every day so hard, that we often times take for granted and forget...
I should definitely read it again, though!!
I should definitely read it again, though!!
May 9, 2017
This poem describes the horrible conditions children were subjected to as chimney sweepers. Sadly countless children died as they contracted diseases due to the filthy chimneys.
December 7, 2018
It was a nice poem.
January 12, 2019
Such a sad and disturbing poem about the abuse of children who were forced to become sweeps by their parents in this era.
May 10, 2021
Beautiful
February 6, 2022
This poem symbolizes death and hope.
Those poor children are content with their life.....but one thing that tore me is the fact that his father "sold" him.
Those poor children are content with their life.....but one thing that tore me is the fact that his father "sold" him.
October 29, 2023
la revolución industrial es un problema.......
January 12, 2025
Fairly enjoyed. A decent criticism of the harsh life of chimney sweepers and their explotation during that era, especially orphans. Interesting indeed.
January 13, 2025
3 Stars ⭐️ Read for British Literature
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