The Chimney Sweeper (Experience) - William Blake
A Stark Rebuke of Hypocrisy and Suffering
Original (Line 1): A little black thing among the snow,
English (Line 1): A little black thing among the snow,
Original (Line 2): Crying ‘weep, ‘weep, in notes of woe!
English (Line 2): Crying ‘weep, ‘weep, in notes of woe!
Original (Line 3): Where are thy father & mother? say?
English (Line 3): Where are your father and mother? say?
Original (Line 4): They are both gone up to the church to pray.
English (Line 4): They have both gone up to the church to pray.
Original (Line 5): Because I was happy upon the heath,
English (Line 5): Because I was happy upon the heath,
Original (Line 6): And smil’d among the winter’s snow:
English (Line 6): And smiled among the winter’s snow,
Original (Line 7): They clothèd me in the clothes of death,
English (Line 7): They clothed me in the clothes of death,
Original (Line 8): And taught me to sing the notes of woe.
English (Line 8): And taught me to sing the notes of woe.
Original (Line 9): And because I am happy, & dance & sing,
English (Line 9): And because I am happy, and dance and sing,
Original (Line 10): They think they have done me no injury,
English (Line 10): They think they have done me no injury,
Original (Line 11): And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King,
English (Line 11): And are gone to praise God and his Priest and King,
Original (Line 12): Who make up a Heaven of our misery.
English (Line 12): Who make up a heaven of our misery.
From William Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper (1794), part of Songs of Experience. Public domain.
William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” (Experience) offers a darker perspective on child labor than its counterpart in *Songs of Innocence*. In these twelve lines, a young chimney sweep appears as a “little black thing among the snow,” highlighting a stark contrast between the child’s soot-stained figure and the white surroundings. Already marginalized and exploited, this child laments the absence of parental care—his father and mother are not tending to his plight but have instead gone off to church.
That detail lays bare one of Blake’s central critiques: the complicity of religious and social institutions that profess compassion yet perpetuate or ignore suffering. While the child does his grim work, the parents “praise God & his Priest & King,” who jointly maintain a status quo that traps the vulnerable. Rather than acknowledging or alleviating misery, the system masks it under piety and outward expressions of virtue.
Blake’s language of “notes of woe” and “clothes of death” emphasizes the deep sorrow and moral decay attached to forcing children into perilous labor. The poem’s final line—that “they” make up a heaven out of the child’s “misery”—exposes the cynical hypocrisy wherein the wealthy and powerful preserve their comfort at the expense of the powerless. By ending with that bleak statement, Blake leaves no easy resolution. He instead invites the reader to confront the moral responsibility of a society that tolerates injustice under the guise of respectability and devoutness.
Thus, “The Chimney Sweeper” from *Songs of Experience* stands as a searing indictment of cultural, religious, and political systems that claim righteousness while neglecting the very children whose innocence those institutions should protect.
Key points
1. The poem illustrates how society and religion can ignore child labor’s cruelty.
2. Blake contrasts the child’s cheer (singing and dancing) with the parents’ callousness.
3. “Heaven made of misery” underscores a system built on exploitation.
4. This version offers a starker, more accusatory tone than its ‘Innocence’ counterpart.
