William Blake published this poem in two parts in two different poetry collections. The first part appeared in the 1789 volume Songs of Innocence. This collection of poems deals with themes of childhood joys and wonders but also how adults corrupt and destroy youthful innocence. The second part of “The Chimney Sweeper” appears in Songs of Experience, published five years later. The poems in the later collection deal more directly with the somber truths of corruption in society.

The end of the eighteenth century saw England undergoing rapid economic and industrial growth. This growth brought newfound wealth to an expanding middle class and more opportunities for urbanization. However, the large homes of the newly rich, which were heated by coal-burning furnaces, required regular maintenance. 

Part of this maintenance was the frequent cleaning of flues, ducts, and chimneys. Only small children, some as young as four, could fit in these compact spaces. Only orphans or the destitute would work unpleasant and dangerous jobs, so these children became England’s chimney sweepers.

As the poem alludes to, this was dangerous work. Chimney sweepers faced the risk of suffocation, burns, or getting stuck or lost inside the complicated ductwork. Even if they survived those dangers, serious illnesses, such as respiratory diseases and cancer, regularly resulted from chronic exposure to toxic ash and chemicals in the flues. The chimneys became the “coffins of black” of the poem.

In “The Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Innocence, readers are introduced to a young chimney sweeper who, despite his terrible circumstances, maintains a sense of innocence and hope. This unnamed chimney sweeper recounts that after his mother died, he was sold by his father to be a chimney sweeper when he could barely cry out “ ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!” In stanza 2, this speaker explains that when Tom Dacre, another chimney sweeper, had his head shaved, he cried; so the speaker comforted him by telling him that when his head is bare, the soot won’t be able to “spoil [his] white hair.”

In stanzas 3–5, the speaker relates a dream that Tom Dacre had the night his head was shaved. In this dream, he and the other children are locked in “coffins of black” but are then freed by an angel. The boys frolic on a “green plain” and “wash in a river and shine in the Sun.”

The angel then tells Tom something significant: 
And the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy,
He’d have God for his father & never want joy.

With this positive dream in mind, Tom goes to work with the other chimney sweepers, the memory of the dream keeping him warm despite the cold morning. The poem ends positively with the speaker reflecting, “So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.”

In contrast, the three stanzas from Songs of Experience present a harsher reality. A chimney sweeper, a mere “little black thing among the snow,” reflects on his life, now with a more cynical and disillusioned perspective. This time, the chimney sweeper cries, “‘weep! ‘weep!’ in notes of woe.”

When asked where his parents are, the chimney sweeper responds that they have “gone up to the church to pray.” The following two stanzas expand upon the chimney sweeper’s circumstances: because he was “happy upon the heath,” he was sold to be a chimney sweeper, and because he appears happy, his parents believe they have done him no harm. 

For the chimney sweeper in Songs of Experience , religion is no longer a source of comfort and hope. Instead of helping the “little black...