The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake
In 1789, the year of
the beginning of the French Revolution, Blake brought out his Songs of
Innocence, which included The Chimney Sweeper.
The poem is in first person, a very young chimney sweeper is exposing the evils
of chimney sweeping as a part of the cruelties created by sudden increase in
wealth. The poem was used as propaganda against the evil of Chimney
Sweeping. The Chimney Sweeper’s life was one of destitution and exploitation.
The large houses created by the wealth of trade had horizontal flues heating
huge rooms which could be cleaned only by a small child crawling through them.
These flues literally became black coffins, which killed many little boys. A
sweeper’s daily task was courting death because of the hazards of suffocation
and burns. These children were either orphans or founding or were sold by poor
parents to Master Sweepers for as little as two guineas. They suffered from
cancers caused by the soot, and occasionally little children terrified of the
inky blackness of the Chimneys got lost within them and only their skeletons
were recovered.
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.
In these twenty-four
lines of William Blake’s
poem, The Chimney Sweeper, a little boy, is telling the story
of his despairing life as well as the sad tales of other chimney’s sweeper
boys. The little boy narrates that he was very young when his mother died. He
was then sold by his father to a Master Sweeper when his age was so tender that
he could not even pronounce the word ‘sweep’ and crying pronounced it ‘weep’
and wept all the time. The pun intended through the use of word ‘weep’ three
times in the third line of this stanza holds pathetic significance. Most
chimney sweepers, like him, were so young that they could not pronounce sweep
and lisped ‘weep’. Since that tender age the little boy is sweeping chimney and
sleeping at night in the soot-smeared body, without washing off the soot.
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.”
In the second stanza, the little
narrator tells us the woeful tale of Tom Dacre. This is a very famous character
in Blake’s many poems. Tom was called ‘Dacre’ because he belonged to Lady
Dacre’s Almshouse, which was situated between St. James Street and Buckingham
Road. The inmates of the Almshouse were foundling orphans, who were allowed to
be adopted by the poor only. It may be a foster father who encased the boy Tom
by selling him to a Master Sweeper. Tom wept when his head was shaved, just as
the back of a lamb is shaved for wool. The narrator then told Tom not to weep
and keep his peace. The narrator told Tom to be calm because lice will not
breed in the pate without hair and there will be no risk for hair to catch
fire.
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?
The third stanza continues the story of
Tom who was calmed by the consoling words of the narrator. That same night
while sleeping Tom saw a wonderful vision. He saw in his dream that many
Chimney sweepers, who were named Dick, Joe, Ned and Jack, were dead and their
bodies were lying in caged coffins, made of black-colored wood.
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.
In the fourth stanza, the vision is
completed. An Angel, who was carrying a shining key, came near the coffins. The
Angel opened the coffins containing the bodies and set all the bodies free from
the bondage of coffins. The freed little sweepers of the chimney ran down a
green ground, washed themselves in the water of a river and dried themselves in
the sunlight to give out a clean shine. This was really a very delightful
moment for these chimney sweepers, who got freed from the shackles of bondage
labor, exploitation and child labor.
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.
In the fifth stanza, the little boy
continues narrating the dream vision of Tom. All the little boys were naked and
white after washing. They were naked because their bags of clothes were left
behind. They cast off the burden of life along with the bags of soot at the
time of death. Now naked and white, the little chimney sweeper boys ride
the clouds and play in the wind. The image of clouds floating freely is Blake’s
metaphor for the freedom from the material boundaries of the body and an
important visual symbol. The Angel told Tom that if he would be a good boy he
would have God for his father and there would never be lack of happiness for
him.
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.
In the last stanza of
Blake’s poem, The Chimney Sweeper, the narrator
tells that Tom woke up and his dream vision broke up. Tom and other little
sweeper boys rose up from their beds in the dark. They made themselves ready to
work taking their bags for soot and the brushes to clean chimney. The morning
was cold, but Tom, after the dream, was feeling warm and happy.
In the last line of the poem, a moral
has been thrown to us: If all do their duty, they need not fear any harm. The
last stanza shows the reality of the sweepers’ life. The antithesis between the
vision of summer sunshine and this dark, cold reality is deeply ironic. Even
though the victims have been mollified, the readers know that innocent trust is
abused.
The Chimney Sweeper consists of six
quatrains, each following the AABB rhyme scheme, with two rhyming couplets per
quatrain. Through this poem, the poet sheds light on the pitiable condition of
the chimney sweepers who were being exploited by their Masters.
This is a poem which describes the
rampant bondage labor, child labor, exploitation of children at tender age, and
the pitiable condition of the orphaned children or the poor children who were
sold by their poor parents.
In all, this poem sarcastically attacks
the advanced societies that keep their eyes shut toward these children, but act
as being generous among their near and dear ones by holding or attending some
charity shows/functions for the poor and down-trodden people in their country.
Moreover, it is surprising to note here that these social evils even today
prevail in our society.
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