The Chimney Sweeper 2
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January 09, 2021
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The Chimney Sweeper
(from Songs of Experience)
A little black thing in the snow,
Crying “„weep! „weep!” in notes of woe!
“Where are thy father and mother? Say!”–
“They are both gone up to the church to pray.
“Because I was happy upon the heath,
And smiled among the winter‟s snow,
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.
“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 tone is more indignant in the second poem. The speaker attacks his parents, the church, the king and the
priest. It also attacks the Christian concept of heaven. The child, hardened by his experience and years of
abuse, no longer entertains flights of escape. His responses to the adult are heartbreaking. Also, note the
growth in the boy‘s voice and his awareness, both emotionally and socially, of his condition.
Summary
This poem parallels its namesake in Songs of Innocence. Where that poem posits a subtle satirical message
against the type of religion that brings false comfort to abused children, this version strikes directly at the
problem. Like Tom Dacre of the earlier poem, the chimney sweeper is crying. When asked where his parents
are, he replies, ―They are both gone up to church to pray.‖ The boy goes on to explain that his appearance of
happiness has led his parents into believing that they have done no harm in finding him work as a chimney
sweep, but the boy knows better. He says they taught him to ―wear the clothes of death‖ and ―to sing the notes
of woe.‖ In fact, they taught him to do this "Because [he] was happy upon the heath,/And smil'd among the
winter's snow." The boy's happiness was in fact an affront to his parents, and his ability to enjoy life despite the
deathly cold and deprivation of winter, which may represent poverty, as it does in "Holy Thursday," is the very
quality that condemns him to a life of further labor and danger. The boy finishes with the damning statement
that his parents ―are gone up to praise God & his Priest & King/Who make up a heaven of our misery.‖
Analysis
When compared structurally to the companion piece from Songs of Innocence, it is obvious that this poem is
half as long as its counterpart is. In addition, many lines are much shorter by one or two syllables. The voice of
the young chimney sweeper is similar to that of Innocence, but he clearly has little time for the questions put to
him (hence the shorter lines). This poem starts with the AABB rhyme scheme characteristic of innocence and
childhood, but as it delves deeper into the experience of the Chimney Sweeper, it switches to CDCD EFEF for
the last two stanzas. The final stanza, in fact, has only a near rhyme between "injury" (line 10) and "misery"
(line 12), suggesting an increasing breakdown in the chimney sweeper's world, or the social order in general.
The entire system, God included, colludes to build its own vision of paradise upon the labors of children who
are unlikely to live to see adulthood. Blake castigates the government (the ―King‖) and religious leaders (God‘s
―Priest‖) in similar fashion to his two ―Holy Thursday‖ poems, decrying the use of otherwise innocent children
to prop up the moral consciences of adults both rich and poor. The use of the phrase "make up a Heaven"
carries the double meaning of creating a Heaven and lying about the existence of Heaven, casting even more
disparagement in the direction of the Priest and King.
About Songs of Innocence and of Experience
With Songs of Innocence, published in 1789, Blake introduced a new method of printing his own books. Blake
would print his poems by hand onto copper plates, illustrate each poem with drawings, and then color the prints
by hand. Blake claimed to have received this idea from the spirit of his recently deceased brother Robert. Most
of Blake‘s work from that point on was printed using this method.
Blake moved to Lambeth from London in 1790, the same year he published his prose work, The Marriage of
Heaven and Hell. This time also marks his shift from career as professional engraver to a more meditative
writer as he developed his own mythology. His work expressed his belief that freedom and independence,
including sexual freedom and independence from authority, were paramount. In 1794, Blake published Songs
of Experience, which contrasts with the childlike naivety of his earlier Songs of Innocence. Songs of
Experience brings in a dark and cynical tone that laments the destruction of innocence by modern society. The
following year he republished both volumes together as Songs of Innocence and of Experience, essentially
creating a single volume of poetry that has persisted in this form up to the present day.
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The Destruction of Innocence
Throughout both Songs ofInnocence and Songs of Experience, Blake repeatedly addresses the destruction of
childlike innocence, and in many cases of children's lives, by a society designed to use people for its own
selfish ends. Blake romanticizes the children of his poems, only to place them in situations common to his day,
in which they find their simple faith in parents or God challenged by harsh conditions. Songs of Experience is
an attempt to denounce the cruel society that harms the human soul in such terrible ways, but it also calls the
reader back to innocence, through Imagination, in an effort to redeem a fallen world.
Redemption
Throughout his works, Blake frequently refers to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. While he alludes to the
atoning act of Christ Crucified, more often Blake focuses on the Incarnation, the taking on of human form by
the divine Creator, as the source of redemption for both human beings and nature. He emphasizes that Christ
"became a little child" just as men and women need to return to a state of childlike grace in order to restore the
innocence lost to the social machinery of a cruel world.
Religious Hypocrisy
In such poems as "Holy Thursday" and "The Little Vagabond," Blake critiques the religious leaders of his day
for their abuse of spiritual authority. The men who should be shepherds to their flocks are in fact reinforcing a
political and economic system that turns children into short-lived chimney sweepers and that represses love and
creative expression in adults. Blake has no patience with clergy who would assuage their own or their earthly
patrons' guilt by parading poor children through a church on Ascension Day, as in "Holy Thursday" from both
sections, and he reserves most of his sharpest verse for these men.
Imagination over Reason
Blake is a strong proponent of the value of human creativity, or Imagination, over materialistic rationalism, or
Reason. As a poet and artist, Blake sees the power of art in its various forms to raise the human spirit above its
earth-bound mire. He also sees the soul-killing materialism of his day, which uses rational thought as an excuse
to perpetuate crimes against the innocent via societal and religious norms. Songs of Experience in particular
decries Reason's hold over Imagination, and it uses several ironic poems to undermine the alleged superiority
of rationalism.
Blake was not opposed to intelligent inquiry, however. In "A Little Boy Lost" from Songs of Experience, Blake
admires the boy's inquiries into the nature of God and his own Thought, even as he sharply criticizes the
religious leaders of his day for demanding mindless obedience to dogma.
Nature as the Purest State of Man
Like many of his contemporary Romantic poets, Blake sees in the natural world an idyllic universe that can
influence human beings in a positive manner. Many of his poems, such as "Spring," celebrate the beauty and
fecundity of nature, while others, such as "London," deride the sterile mechanism of urban society. Blake's
characters are happiest when they are surrounded by natural beauty and following their natural instincts; they
are most oppressed when they are trapped in social or religious institutions or are subject to the horrors of
urban living.
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The Flaws of Earthly Parents
One recurring motif in both Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience is the failure of human parents to
properly nurture their children. The "Little Boy Lost" is abandoned by his earthly father, yet rescued by his
Heavenly Father. The parents of "The Little Vagabond" weep in vain as their son is burned alive for heresy.
Both mother and father seem frustrated by their child's temperament in "Infant Sorrow." This recurring motif
allows Blake to emphasize the frailty of human communities, in which the roles of mother and father are
defined by society rather than by natural instincts, and to emphasize the supremacy of Nature and of divine care
in the form of God the Father.
Social Reform
While much of Blake's poetry focuses on leaving behind the material world in favor of a more perfect spiritual
nature, his poetry nonetheless offers realistic and socially conscious critiques of existing situations. Both of his
"Chimney Sweeper" poems highlight the abuse of children by parents and employers as they are forced into
hazardous, and potentially fatal, situations for the sake of earning money. Both "Holy Thursday" poems decry
the overt display of the poor as a spectacle of absolution for the wealthy and affluent. "The Human Abstract"
points out that our virtues are predicated on the existence of human suffering. Although Blake is certainly
more spiritually than practically minded, the seeds of social reform can be seen in the philosophy underlying
his verses: innocence is a state of man that must be preserved, not destroyed, and the social systems that seek
to destroy innocence must be changed or eliminated.
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