'The Chimney Sweeper' by William Blake

Poetry

The Chimney Sweeper

*William Blake (from Songs of Innocence, 1791)*

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 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.” 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 lock’d up in coffins of black. And by came an Angel who had a bright key, And he open’d the coffins & set them 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, Tho the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm, So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.


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