"The Chimney Sweeper" is a poem by English visionary William Blake, published in Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794). It is the companion to a poem of the same name that appears in the earlier Innocence collection, and works as a kind of update on the plight of the chimney sweeper—a young boy forced to do the horrible work of cleaning chimneys. Unlike in the first poem, this sweep can take no solace in organized religion—he is too experienced for that. He is so covered in soot that he is barely recognizable, and explains to the reader that society has oppressed and exploited the natural joyfulness of his youth.
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The Full Text of “The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)”
1A little black thing among the snow,
2Crying "weep! weep!" in notes of woe!
3"Where are thy father and mother? say?"
4"They are both gone up to the church to pray.
5"Because I was happy upon the heath,
6And smil'd among the winter's snow,
7They clothed me in the clothes of death,
8And taught me to sing the notes of woe.
9"And because I am happy and dance and sing,
10They think they have done me no injury,
11And are gone to praise God and his Priest and King,
12Who make up a heaven of our misery."
The Full Text of “The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)”
1A little black thing among the snow,
2Crying "weep! weep!" in notes of woe!
3"Where are thy father and mother? say?"
4"They are both gone up to the church to pray.
5"Because I was happy upon the heath,
6And smil'd among the winter's snow,
7They clothed me in the clothes of death,
8And taught me to sing the notes of woe.
9"And because I am happy and dance and sing,
10They think they have done me no injury,
11And are gone to praise God and his Priest and King,
12Who make up a heaven of our misery."
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“The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)” Summary
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“The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)” Themes
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Organized Religion and Childhood
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)”
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Lines 1-2
A little black thing among the snow,
Crying "weep! weep!" in notes of woe! -
Lines 3-4
"Where are thy father and mother? say?"
"They are both gone up to the church to pray. -
Lines 5-8
"Because I was happy upon the heath,
And smil'd among the winter's snow,
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe. -
Lines 9-12
"And because I am happy and dance and sing,
They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God and his Priest and King,
Who make up a heaven of our misery."
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“The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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Consonance
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Paradox
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Repetition
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Polysyndeton
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“The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Woe
- Thy
- Heath
- Smil'd
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)” Speaker
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“The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)”
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More “The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)” Resources
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External Resources
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Blake's Visions — Writer Iain Sinclair on Blake's religious visions.
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Full Text of Songs of Innocence and Experience — Full text in which "The Chimney Sweeper" is collected, from Project Gutenberg.
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"The Chimney Sweeper" Illustrated — How the poem looked when Blake originally published it—produced through the process of illuminated printing.
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The Two Chimney Sweepers — An interesting comparison of this poem with its partner in Songs of Innocence.
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Blake's Radicalism — Here Sinclair discusses Blake's radicalism.
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Blake's Illustrations and Other Poems — A closer look at some of Blake's poems, featuring their original illustrated pages, from the Tate organization, which holds a large collection of Blake originals.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by William Blake
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