The Chimney Sweeper.

The Chimney Sweeper

==from Songs of Innocence==When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry “‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!“
So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.
There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curl’d like a lamb’s back, was shav’d: so I said
“Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head’s bare
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.“

And so he was quiet & that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned & jack,
Were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black.

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And he open’d the coffins & set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the Sun.

Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy,
He’d have God for his father & never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags & our brushes to work.
Tho’ the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.

Photograph from Wikimedia Commons

The Chimney Sweeper

==from Songs of Experience==A little black thing among the snow,
Crying ”weep! ‘weep!‘ in notes of woe!
“Where are thy father & mother? say?”
“They are both gone up to the church to pray.
“Because I was happy upon the heath,
“And smil’d among the winter’s snow,
“They clothed me in the clothes of death,
“And taught me to sing the notes of woe.

“And because I am happy & dance & sing,
“They think they have done me no injury,
“And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King,
“Who make up a heaven of our misery.

Photograph from The Romantic Audience Project