Analysis of William Blake’s two “Chimney Sweeper” poems

William Blake’s two “Chimney Sweeper” poems from the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

• Character growth and progression in children as shown in Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper Poems

William Blake’s two “Chimney Sweeper” poems from the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, heretofore referred to as the “first poem” and “second poem”, show a progression in the awareness of a young chimney-sweeper, from an innocent child clouded by childhood euphoria to a mature one whose awareness of his own life reveals a stark contrast between the privileged and the downtrodden. The poem revolves around four themes: childhood poverty, exploitation, stark social inequality, and religion. This brief essay will discuss these three themes to highlight the boy’s transition from childhood innocence to maturity.

The “first poem” highlights the life of Tom Dacre, a chimney sweeper who is born to a world of abject poverty. Sold at a young age, Tom has very little choices in terms of his life options. Deprived of parental care and the joys of childhood, all Tom really have is his peers and the thought of being warm during the cold. Tom obviously has dreams for a better life, but his dreams are that of an innocent child, devoid of the social structures that restrict his options. In the first poem, Tom dreams of being free, clean, and of being able to enjoy nature, the sunshine, his childhood. Tom is undoubtedly deprived of his happiness as a child. He is longing to have a parental or a father figure in his life as depicted by the lines: “And the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy, /He’d have God for his father & never want joy.” The omniscient narrator then snaps back to the reality of Tom’s living conditions, with Tom waking up to a dreadful reality — a reality which Tom seems to be oblivious to as shown by the line: “Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm; /So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.”

Initially, the innocent chimney sweeper is content and is only concerned with being warm during the winter and not being punished. But as he matures, the social injustice and exploitative working conditions eventually dawns on him: “They clothed me in the clothes of death, /And taught me to sing the notes of woe”. The “they” is later revealed in the second poem as “God and his Priest and King”. And in contrast to the omniscient narrator used in the first poem, the second poem uses the first-person pronoun “I” indicating that the chimney sweeper is now able to deeply reflect on his situation. Interestingly, Tom is already subconsciously aware of his exploitation in the first poem as shown by his dream of being freed from the imprisonment of chimney sweeping, but childhood innocence seemingly ignores the metaphor of chimneys as “coffins of black” and the euphemism of death where Tom and his peers ascends to heaven “naked & white” (i.e., naked and clean).

Eventually, Tom comes to the realization of the stark social inequality between him and the people who permit his exploitation. As shown by the last stanza in the second poem: “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.” The last stanza basically sums up Tom’s evolution from an innocent child whose main preoccupation is to do his “duty” in order not to “fear harm”, to a more mature individual who is now able to construct a more antagonistic social structure that succinctly highlights the injustice perpetrated by those in positions of wealth and power, such as the Priest and King, towards the downtrodden — the chimney sweepers and those who are penniless and powerless.

What is more significant, however, is how Tom’s views on God has changed. During the boy’s innocence, God is seen as a kind of a benevolent father figure who will provide the boy with joy so long as he remains “good”. What constitutes being good, however, is not specified. But the last stanza of the second poem does indicate that being “good” means that Tom and his peers must do their “duty” so that “they need not fear harm”. Tom was initially unable to see the irony in this in the first poem when he dreams of God “for his father”. But Tom later realizes that God is the one “Who make up a heaven of our misery”.

In conclusion, the two poems form a very powerful story of a child who is born into abject poverty, sold by his father, exploited as a chimney sweeper, and later realizes that his condition is caused by God by using the Priests and King as His proxy. The story of the chimney sweeper is really the story of a great number of poor children in Britain during the Industrial Revolution when many children were employed to work long hours in very dangerous conditions for very little pay.