The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake

Point 1

Blake begins the speaker’s story with a sense of pathos.

POINT 1- “little black thing among the snow”

• noun ‘thing’ describes an inanimate object with no feelings, name or identity, suggesting the sweep is a tool rather than a person.

  • Blake suggests society has stripped the child of humanity, and instead turned it into a tool for profit

• juxtaposition of ‘black’ and ‘snow’, implying the filth, corruption and suffering of the child in contrast to its expected childhood innocence

• Blake challenges the assumption that child labour is an acceptable part of Georgian society

Point 2

Blake suggests that the appearance of parental care often overshadows exploitation

POINT 2- “They clothed me in the clothes of death”

• metaphor creates an image of the child in its own funeral clothing, suggesting that parents sending their children to sweep are condemning them to death, contrary to our usual expectations of a parent’s role in preserving their child’s wellbeing

• the verb “clothed” suggests a deliberate, caring act, and Blake implies that acts of exploitation are often disguised as acts of love and care. He argues that although the parents believe they are doing the child good by providing them with a job and income, they are instead delivering their child to danger or possibly death

Point 3

Blake implies that the children are too young to realise their own unhappiness and mistreatment

POINT 3- “because I am happy and dance and sing”

• ‘happy’ connotes contentment and wellbeing. This shows that the child has no frame of reference for genuine joy because he has never experienced it, so assumes he is happy.

  • Through this Blake suggests that the most dangerous part of exploitation is its normalisation, despite it being a convenient belief for the upper class

• ‘dance’ symbolises an action of freedom and playfulness, which the child claims as proof of happiness. Blake criticises popular belief that visible cheerfulness and evidence of play and childlike activities/innocence proves a child’s contentment, and exposes this as a weak excuse for allowing child labour

Point 4

Blake ends the poem with a powerful image of the child’s exploitation

POINT 4- “who make up a heaven of my misery”

• metaphor of heaven creates an image of paradise and eternal peace, suggesting afterlife promised to be peaceful and idyllic is bought with the suffering of the weak and helpless.

  • Argues that the church does not protect children but instead profits from their exploitation- hypocrisy

• emotive noun ‘misery’ connotes long suffering with no end.

  • Blake ensures that the poem ends with the reality of the children’s suffering and not the adults’ ignorance. Suggests that impressionable children are exploited by promises of reward in the afterlife