young boy in overalls and a hat walking with a chimney sweeping broom over his shoulder

The Chimney Sweeper

by William Blake

Start Free Trial

The Chimney Sweeper Questions and Answers

The Chimney Sweeper Study Tools

Take a quiz Ask a question Start an essay

The Chimney Sweeper

The theme of exploitation dominates “The Chimney Sweeper.” In both poems of the same name, Blake attempts to highlight the appalling working conditions that these children are forced to endure and...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

The tone of "The Chimney Sweeper" is one of gentle innocence and trust, contrasting sharply with its grim subject. The poem's innocent and hopeful tone creates dramatic irony, highlighting the harsh...

2 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

"The Chimney Sweeper" poignantly explores the harmful effects of industrialization through the tragic experiences of child laborers. William Blake's poem uses the voice of a young chimney sweeper to...

2 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

"The Chimney Sweeper," a poem by William Blake, explores themes of innocence and exploitation through the eyes of young chimney sweepers. The poem concludes with the protagonist, Tom, finding solace...

7 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

The metaphor "coffins of black" in William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" represents the physical and existential imprisonment of child chimney sweepers. It refers to the soot-filled chimneys they...

2 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" explores the harsh realities of child labor during the Industrial Revolution. The poem's theme centers on the loss of innocence and the cruelty faced by child...

10 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

The speaker in William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" is a young child, likely around seven years old, who works as a chimney sweep. He recounts his experiences with a poignant naivete, highlighting...

2 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

In "The Chimney Sweeper," the reference to the boy sold into child labor being shaved like a lamb symbolizes the meekness and innocence of the boy. It is also a reference to Christ, the Lamb of God,...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

Tom Dacre is another chimney sweep who cries because his hair is shaved off. The narrator reassures him that a shaved head prevents soot from dirtying his hair, implying that their employers forcibly...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

The irony in "The Chimney Sweeper" lies in the speaker's assurance that the dutiful won't fear harm, as doing their duty as chimney sweeps ensures their early death. Little Tom feels comforted by the...

2 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

The speaker in "The Chimney Sweeper" cries because of the harsh and dangerous conditions of child labor in eighteenth-century England. Although the poem does not directly state the speaker cries, it...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

The first three stanzas of "The Chimney Sweeper" use several literary devices. The poem employs a first-person perspective to create a personal connection with the reader and uses direct address to...

4 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" satirizes English society's hypocrisy by using irony to highlight the inhumanity faced by child chimney sweepers. The poem contrasts their grim reality with an...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

The literal interpretation of the line "in soot I sleep" in "The Chimney Sweeper" is that the child is unable to clean himself and as such, stays dirty and covered in soot—so he sleeps in soot....

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

"The Chimney Sweeper" reflects the harsh life, work, and conditions in London by highlighting the exploitation and suffering of child laborers. The poem portrays the grim realities faced by young...

3 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

Tom is "happy and warm" although "the morning was cold" because he had a dream in which an angel told him that if he'd be a good boy he'd have God for a father and never want joy. In that dream, the...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

The poet's attitude in "The Chimney Sweeper" swings between hope and anger. In the version from Songs of Innocence, the child speaker is hopeful, believing in a better afterlife despite his harsh...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

In "The Chimney Sweeper," Tom Dacre is a young chimney sweep who dreams of being freed from his grim life. The lamb symbolizes innocence and purity, reflecting Tom's childlike nature and hope for...

3 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

The chimney sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack, are not depicted as real individuals but rather as figures in a dream. Blake likely chose their names for poetic meter and rhyme, with "Jack"...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

In "The Chimney Sweeper," "my tongue / Could scarcely" cry indicates that the poem's narrator is very young.

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

During the time of "The Chimney Sweeper," children faced harsh living conditions, often working long hours in hazardous environments like factories, coal mines, and as chimney sweeps. The Industrial...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

William Blake uses structure in "The Chimney Sweeper" by employing a deteriorating rhyme scheme to help develop the poem's morbid subject.

3 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" is a poignant critique of 18th-century society's exploitation of child labor, particularly in the dangerous occupation of chimney sweeping. Through a child's...

4 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

William Blake's Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794), each containing a version of "The Chimney Sweeper," are grounded in Blake's mystical belief system in which...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

In Tom Dacre's dream, his biggest wish comes true. He is allowed to play with his fellow chimney-sweeps and wash in the river. For a boy who never gets the chance to play and is constantly covered in...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

Blake uses a combination of irregular meter, rhyme, and structure to convey the disjointed world of the chimney sweeper.

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" shows in various ways that the children do not like the work they do. First, the little boy telling the story mixes up the word "sweep," which the chimney sweepers are...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

As always with quotes, it becomes incredibly important to examine them in the context of the work from which they are taken in order to understand what the author or poet is trying to do with them....

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

Profoundly affective, "The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Innocence is much more subtle and ironic in tone than the one from Songs of Experience, which is vituperative in tone and...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

“The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake is a dramatic monologue, meaning the speaker of the poem is a specific persona the author embodies. In this case, the persona is that of a child laborer who...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" is set in London, England in the late 1700s. It describes, from the point of view of a young, innocent chimney sweeper, the cruel life of young boys from the poorest...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

The words "my" and "I" in the first stanza of the poem describe the chimney sweep. He is telling his own story, using the first person voice. In the first two lines, the chimney sweep, speaking to...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

The poem "The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Innocence uses sensory language like no other poem in the collection. It is composed entirely of visual, tactile, and auditory images that bring to life...

2 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

The speaker's history in Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" comes in the first stanza: When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue, Could scarcely cry weep weep weep...

2 educator answers

The Chimney Sweeper

The singsong rhythm and rhyme scheme of William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" contrast with the dark subject matter. The rhythm of the poem give readers the impression that they are reading...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

If you have read Charles Dickens's classic novel, Oliver Twist, you will remember that Oliver was almost apprenticed to a Mr. Gamfield who worked boys as chimney sweepers until gentlemen...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

William Blake''s poems "The Chimney Sweeper," "London," and "The Garden of Love" address the theme of death through combined use of religious symbolism with dark and morbid imagery.  Blake's...

1 educator answer

The Chimney Sweeper

The Enlightenment belief in progress and ideals of liberty, equality, and brotherhood undergird the calls for social justice in "Holy Thursday" and "The Chimney Sweeper." Both poems are Romantic in...

1 educator answer