their children. Some of them felt they had no choice, other than sell their children for work. It is a heartbreaking poem of children who have to not only deal with the death of a parent, but take on an adult role as well. It is also heartwarming that an angel appears to them in a dream and lets them know that everything is going to be alright. The children are comforted in the fact that there is someone looking out for them. It is a short poem, but has a big impact on what the meaning is.   

William Blake wrote two poems with the title "The Chimney Sweeper," and they are very different from each other. One poem is a "Song of Innocence" and is written entirely in first person by a chimney sweeper. In this poem, the sweeper has a positive attitude about having been sold as a chimney sweep when he was very young. He encourages a fellow sweeper, Tom Dacre, who was sad to have his head shaved. He helped him look on the bright side by pointing out how the soot would not be able to spoil his white hair now. After hearing that encouragement, Tom Dacre dreams of several young sweepers who are "lock'd up in coffins of black." In his dream, an angel opened the coffins and freed the boys, who then were able to play in the grass and "wash in a river and shine in the Sun." The theme of this poem is that no matter how dismal one's life is, one can always dream and hope of a pleasant future to come, and one can always find something to be thankful for. 

The second poem, a "Song of Experience," takes a much darker view of the chimney sweep's fate. The poem starts out by asking a little sweeper where his parents are. Lines 4 - 12 are spoken by the sweeper in first person. He states his parents have gone to the church to pray. He explains that since he was a child of a cheery disposition, they sold him to be a chimney sweeper--evidently believing his positive personality could endure the hardship. The sweeper admits he is still happy and dances and sings, which causes his parents to assume "they have done me no injury." He then states that his parents have "gone to praise God & his Priest & King, / Who make up a heaven of our misery." By saying that the parents are "making up" a heaven, the poem suggests not only that the Christian Heaven is a mere fiction, but also that the happiness they imagine their son enjoys is also a fantasy of their own creation, one that helps them justify what they have done to their child for money. The theme of this poem is that people use religion to justify their actions and that just because a person displays outward happiness does not mean that he is happy inside, or that those who have caused him hardship should not be held accountable.

Blake's "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" included many paired poems. The former took an innocent, naive view of the world while the latter took a hardened, pessimistic view of the world. Blake believed that "without contraries there is no progression." In other words, looking at two opposing viewpoints can result in progress toward understanding and truth. These contrasting poems with their contrasting themes are meant to help us better understand the issue of childhood hardships.

This poem is a harsh and justifiable critique of child labor. During Blake's lifetime, children were often used to climb through the flues in order to sweep the chimneys out. Boys as young as four years old were trained to do this. This was, of course, very dangerous. Children could be injured and even killed as a result of burns, cancer, and suffocation. 

In the poem's first stanza, the child is so young he can not yet say "sweep." He can only say "weep" which is tragically fitting since it resembles crying. The sound is also evocative of a baby bird crying for food or for its mother. This underscores how vulnerable these children are. 

The speaker of the poem tells us about one such child, Tom Dacre. Some child sweeps would also get stuck in the chimneys. Those that come out would be soot-stained and could have inflamed eyes. Tom has a nightmare about other sweeps stuck in black coffins. The experience of being stuck in the chimney is compared to that of being in a coffin. 

Then Tom dreams of an angel coming to rescue them all. He imagines them being free on a green plain. This symbolizes a freedom in life, to run and play as children should. Then he pictures them rising upon clouds, perhaps a reference to the heavenly afterlife. A more morbid interpretation of these dreams is that the only escape for the child worker is through death and dreams. 

In Blake's day, it was quite common for his contemporaries to venerate the Industrial Revolution, to regard it as an unalloyed good driving Great Britain to ever more dizzying heights of progress and prosperity. Very few people, if any, were prepared to consider that not everyone benefitted from this period of rapid economic expansion and that indeed there were many in the country who were considerably worse off, both spiritually and economically, as a result of industrialization.

William Blake, however, was a staunch critic of industrialization and the damaging effect it had on the most vulnerable members of society. In “The Chimney Sweeper” poems, he concentrates on the appalling treatment meted out to child laborers forced to perform dirty, degrading work for a pittance simply in order to stave off starvation.

In the Songs of Innocence, Blake introduces us to a small boy sold into the chimney sweep trade by his father before he was barely old enough to talk. We get a sense here that the boy's father was also a victim of industrial society in that he was compelled to put his son out to work in order to spare himself and his family from outright destitution.

The boy in the poem, like so many of his fellow chimney sweeps, is denied a childhood by his harsh working life. He has been deprived of his innocence at an early age, which Blake clearly regards as an absolute tragedy. The boy, and so many others like him, is a victim of industrialization, where people, including children, are treated as nothing more than economic commodities. Blake, in telling his story, hopes to alert his readers to what's going on in the dark underbelly of a society whose inevitable progress they unthinkingly take for granted.

William Blake wrote two poems entitled "The Chimney Sweeper." The first, a six-stanza poem with a dactylic rhythm, is included in Songs of Innocence. The second, a three-stanza poem in predominantly iambic rhythm, is part of Songs of Experience. One of William Blake's tenets is, "Without contraries is no progression." By studying both contrasting sides of an issue, one can arrive at the truth. The matched poems allow Blake to present "two contrary states of the human soul." 

The first version of "The Chimney Sweeper" is written entirely in first person from the point of view of a particularly cheerful and optimistic young sweep. Although his mother died when he was young and his father sold him into the dangerous and unpleasant profession of chimney sweeping, he encourages another sweep named Tom Dacre. Tom then has a dream of thousands of sweepers who were "lock'd up in coffins of black" who were freed by an angel and allowed to run out on a green plain in the sunshine and wash in a river. The angel tells Tom that if he's a good boy, he will "have God for his father & never want joy." The next morning Tom and the narrator rise early and go to work in a happy state, knowing that "they need not fear harm," presumably because God is watching over them. This is a surprisingly naive look at a heartbreakingly unjust plight for children to endure, yet it shows the soul's capability of finding something to be happy about even in the most miserable of circumstances.

The second version of "The Chimney Sweeper" is as dark as the first seems airy. In this poem, the narrator asks a sweep where his father and mother are. The sweep explains in cynical style that he was once happy and optimistic at home and even "among the winter's snow." His parents, seeing his cheery disposition, rewarded him by selling him into the chimney sweep trade. Even now he remains outwardly happy--he is known to "dance & sing"--so his parents go off to church and worship hypocritically believing "they have done ... no injury" to their son. In this way, they ignore the pain they have caused in their desire for material gain, and they are able "to praise God & his Priest & King" even as they "make up a heaven of our misery." This poem shows the soul's capability of recognizing hypocrisy in one's oppressors even while maintaining an outwardly compliant attitude. It is the perfect contrast to the first poem because it represents what the narrator sweep in the first poem might someday come to realize--once he has moved away from "innocence" and gained "experience."

In The Chimney Sweeper, William Blake highlights the shocking conditions in which the young chimney sweeps exist, as boys barely old enough to even say sweep instead of "weep," are taken into service . The poem appears as part of Songs of Innocence and there is a distinct recognition by the reader that the boys live in the midst of terrible experiences. The poem of the same name also appears in the Songs of Experience. The Innocence version reveals that the boys do not know any better and accept their situation; even little Tom Dacre is "happy and warm." Tom's dream of the boys who are "locked up in coffins of black" is meant to horrify the reader as the boys' only release comes from the angel with the "bright key."  The symbolism seems to escape the seven year old narrator but is not lost on the reader who understands, even though it is not said, only implied, that these boys will continue in these jobs until they either die from soot in their lungs or get too big to fit up the chimneys. Being "a good boy" is something to be encouraged but, for these boys, there is no reward, except to continue doing "their duty." Failure to do so will undoubtedly result in the "harm" the boys want to avoid as they will be punished if they do not do a good job. Cruelty to children was an unregulated and shocking social issue of the time; one which William Blake felt strongly about.

Hence, the second version appears in Songs of Experience. Here, the tone is mocking and judgmental. The young boy is still the narrator and he still accepts his situation to the point that those who force him to work, his parents, " think they have done me no injury." However, the boy is much wiser and the irony of the situation does not escape him in this version as he can see how contradictory it is to "praise God and His priest and king," whilst young boys suffer as chimney sweeps. The boys in the earlier version are met by an angel and "wash in a river and shine in the sun;" in the latter version, the narrator recognizes only the "misery." 

William Blake is able therefore to express his dissatisfaction with the situation and reveal how acceptance of a situation does not make it acceptable. 

Blake was very interested in the social conditions of his day and had radical ideas about the welfare and education of children. He would undoubtedly have witnessed at first hand the usually deplorable conditions in which child chimney sweeps were forced to work. Because of coal fires London was an extremely smoky city even up till comparatively modern times and the narrow chimney openings needed someone small to climb into them to clean out the soot that otherwise would have blocked the flu or caught fire. Therefore very small and young boys were used for the task and their lives were frequently at risk. Even if they survived falls and other hazards such as getting trapped, the constant inhaling of soot and fumes would have been very damaging to their respiratory systems. Blake's empathy for them surely inspired poems like this.

William Blake's poignant poem of the poor, innocent little boys made to climb through chimneys and clean them to the point that their bodies become deformed as they grow and their lungs fill with the soot, points to the horrific exploitation of children as its theme.

So pitiful is the life of these little chimney sweeps that their only solace is in the hopes of dreams and of death.

And by came an angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins and set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.

For the new chimney sweeper, little Tom goes to sleep, dreaming of a new life after death that will console him for the terrible deprivations he suffers in his life. Thus, Blake subtlely exposes the brutal conditions under which these children are exploited as the innocent retains hope, 

Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm

"The Chimney Sweeper" exposes the cruel injustice of a society that places commercial value over human value with its theme of the inhumane treatment of the little boys who are chimney sweepers.

In your question about Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" you ask for a bit more than we can answer in one answer (suggested length 90 words), but I'll give some information that will help you make sense of the poem.

First, I'm assuming you're studying the poem from Blake's Songs of Innocence rather than the poem from Songs of Experience of the same name, so I'll answer your question about that poem.

In short, the first stanza gives the young boy's history (the speaker's history).  The details are an accurate depiction of how boys were sold into virtual slavery to become chimney sweepers in Blake's time.  Some sweeps were orphans and some were sold by parents who couldn't afford to raise them.  The "occupation" usually led to an early death from inhaling soot.

The speaker then tells the story of another sweep, Tom Dacre, who cries when his hair is cut, which was the usual practice to keep soot from getting into a sweep's hair. 

The speaker tells Tom not to worry because cutting his hair will keep the soot out--in other words, he gives him a rationale.  But the point is really that he is taking the point of view of the exploiting adults in the situation and the point of view of society.  The speaker is essentially telling Tom that "It's for your own good." 

The remainder of the poem presents society's view, and the church's point of view, suggests Blake, that Tom should not worry about the abuses he suffers now, because he will be rescued when he goes to heaven.  The speaker and Tom are naive and they buy into the line of thought that justifies their suffering of abuses.

In the poem, then, two sweeps adjust to their situation by looking forward to their future rewards.  The reader is left to infer that they are being naive by buying into a line of thought that justifies their being abused.  There is no irony on the part of the speaker because he isn't aware that he's being naive.

Concerning symbols and imagery, Tom's hair is "curled like a lambs back":  innocent, pure.  This simile, image and symbol establishes the innocence of young boys made to be sweeps, and points forward to their naivete.

The black coffins represent the chimneys and the black bodies of soot-covered sweeps.   

By the way, in the second poem of the same name, the chimney sweeper, though also a child, is more aware of the issues involved and is not so naive.  Though still a child, he understands how sweeps are being abused. 

There are several ways you could answer this question, but you might consider that the poems (there are actually two) titled "The Chimney Sweeper" are an indictment against child labor practices.

At the time of the publication of these poems, it was a common practice for very young boys (particularly from poor families) to be sold for labor purposes. Most commonly, boys as young as four or five years old could be found cleaning chimneys, their tiny bodies squeezed into tight spaces to scrape the soot from where it collected inside chimneys and thereby reduce fire hazards. This led to many deaths, either from falls or from lung disorders caused by breathing the sooty residue.

Blake's poems remind his audience that social practices which endanger children are unacceptable. In the poem that begins with "When my mother died I was very young," the young speaker's voice is so young that he has not yet developed the ability to form the sw- blend in the word sweep. Therefore, his cries come out "weep," which is also a reminder of the pain inherent in this boy's existence as a chimney sweeper. He also addresses the audience directly, indicating that it is "your chimneys I sweep." (Italics added for emphasis.) The use of second person is a scathing indictment toward all who passively allow children to be abused in this way. Later, the speaker recalls the "thousands" of fellow sweepers who are now "locked up in coffins of black" because their small bodies have been exploited for profit.

In the poem which begins "A little black thing among the snow," the young chimney sweeper has been left behind, dressed in "clothes of death," while his parents and other adults attend church. This poem questions how those who worship God can also ignore the "misery" of children who have been condemned to such dangerous working conditions and at such young ages.

Blake's poetry is typically a wondrous and reverent examination of natural and religious topics. These two poems instead use natural and religious elements to criticize a particular social injustice.