The Chimney Sweeper

The Chimney Sweeper

          William Blake, a pre-romantic poet, has written two poems entitled “Chimney Sweeper”. One of them is from the “songs of innocence” collection while the other is from the “songs of experience”. Both of them complete each other. In the latter poem, Blake criticizes not only the moral corruption, but also the religious corruption. Such criticism showed how humanitarian the poet is.

          First of all, the very close reason to the suffering of these children is the moral corruption.  The poem began with the sentence, “a little black thing among the snow”. Here, the word “black” could not only indicate the color from sweeping, but also it could suggest the black views of his society towards him as an illegal child. Moreover, the word “thing” indicates that these children are treated as sub-humans or even as machines to work. It is a society that disdain people regarding to other`s faults. Hence, the illegal relationship is a way of destruction since the outcome of children will not be desired in their society. People will consider them as inferiors and treat them badly, ending them up working day and night to compensate what their indifferent parents left. In this poem, the little child said, “Where are thy father and mother?” which demonstrates that parents are careless toward their children. Therefore, the children are “crying, weep! Weep! in the notes of woe”. That is why the parents are the first responsible for the misery of these children.

          Secondly, the other reason of the illegal children`s plight is the religious corruption. In the poem, the little child said, “they are both gone up to church to pray” which suggests that the church is a source of hypocrisy. That is because the parents went to pray leaving their children starving after them. Similarly, the church men are wearing the mask of religion while they are letting people to suffer. They do not end poverty, which could lead to such illegal relationships, nor do they care for those victims, the chimney sweepers. Those indifferent clergy men led the children lose their faith not only in them or in the king, but also in God as the child said, “God and his Priest and King, who make up a heaven of our misery”.

          Indeed, William Blake is known of his humanitarianism. Against the expectations of his society, he always calls for equality for all people and seeks to better their lives. In his poem “the Chimney Sweeper”, he calls for the rights of the illegal children. He wants them to have the attention and care as any other children in the society. This can be achieved by eliminating both moral and religious corruption. Thus, the illegal children phenomena will be eliminated.

Written By:

Sahar Yassin Alshobaki