For most of us it can be agreed that our childhoods were everything we dreamt of 

looking back, no responsibility, no deadlines, no pressure, just love and enjoyment. These are 
the things that shape us for the rest of our lives. When English poet, William Blake talks about 
innocence, he describes it as bliss and how experience is the thing that strips it all away from 
us. Experience is what exposes us to the real world and all the controversial things associated 
with it. Experience is what we learn on the way to growing up and is passed on in the poems as 
dark or more realistic views on the world. The chimney sweeper is no different and is a poem 
with lots of deep meaning stemming from all aspects of my global issue being “identity, 
community, and culture.” The poem can be placed almost directly into the transition of 
innocence to experience where the children learn the hardships of the world and that not 
everything is quite just for them. While this is a sad message it conveys the everyday lives of 
these children and makes us all rethink what we take for granted. Being published in 1789, The 
chimney sweeper was written smack in the middle of the industrial revolution. Things like 
chimney sweepers were a common sight during this time and were not often looked at 
negatively. I believe that is solely why blake chose this topic for one of his poems, because 
they were often not even questioned and were part of people's daily lives. He was essentially 
critiquing the society and culture that allowed this to happen on a daily basis. This idea even 
has a very large merit in today's culture as this continues to happen everyday in the modern 
world, while not as prominent, is not something that has not completely phased out of 
existence. 

The very first stanza of the poem we are introduced to the character of which the 
poem is being told in the perspective of. The boy has no mother as he states she died when he 
was at a very young age however he also mentions that his father sold him into the industry of 
chimney sweeping around the same time. This can give us a very good idea of the 
demographic we are dealing when it comes to chimney sweepers, more specifically, the 
sweepers in this poem. Blake uses this to put us in a pitiful state to recognize and show the 
identities of these children and why society should not simply overlook them. 

In the second stanza we are introduced to another young man, Tom Dacre, a fellow 
sweeper who throughout the poem is the main companion of our unnamed main character. We 
are also introduced to the current dilemma that Tom faces, he weeps over his bald head that 
once housed beautiful white locks of hair. The quote that introduces us to this dilemma is very 
interesting as it brings up a very good point on Blake's personal views and beliefs guiding his 
poems. He uses the term “Lamb” to describe Tom’s hair here. This is something that is used as 
a symbol in many of his other poems. The lamb is a common symbol of Jesus in the chrisitan 
world which is what makes this extremely interesting. Blake was by no means an Atheist and 
had lots of religious influence in his life, so then why would he use this symbol to criticize 
society? He uses this lamb because he does not agree with the practices of the church and 
denounce the way they lure in children to this life of misery and justify it with a wonderful 
consequence free afterlife. 

Anyways The main character consoles Tom and tells him to look on the bright side 
telling him "Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare, You know that the soot 
cannot spoil your white hair. This is a huge point in the poem, what may seem like something 
very simple coming from the main character it symbolizes something a lot larger for the boys 
as a whole, what keeps them going. Throughout their lives all they have is each other with 
most of the lot having nobody to look up to, nobody to share their feelings with, to learn from, 
except for each other that is. From this very line we can interpret the role that community 
plays in their lives and how we can see that they rely on each other.  

Tom later that night has a dream that is described with “As Tom was a-sleeping he had 
such a sight! That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack, Were all of them locked up 
in coffins of black; And by came an Angel who had a bright key, And he opened the coffins & 
set them all free.” This can be interpreted in a number of ways but the main thing here that 
can be seen throughout all of the evidence we have looked at already is that there are two 
colors of which represent the two topics of the songs. First there is white representing 
innocence and then there is black representing experience. This is first represented by tom 
and his white hair being cut and spoiled by the black soot. Then there is the coffins of black, 
then finally there is the reference coming directly after the aforementioned extract, that in 
heaven they can all roam free “Naked and white” or essentially live their ideal innocent 
afterlives. 

At the end of the poem we start to notice that one thing leaves the sweepers fate 
hanging. This thing is hope, hope in the idea that they believe they will have a gracious 
afterlife. Their mind forged manacles leave them thinking they have no place in society and 
that their only escape from chimney sweeping is heaven. Their culture and identity have a 
large role played in this as they live in a religious based culture with very limited upbringing. 
Community also plays a large role in the way they move through life as without parental 
figures they only have each other. 

The stanza directly after simply does the job of solidifying The main character has no 
mother and their father sold them into the industry when they were a baby. Now their 
day-to-day life involves breathing soot and cleaning chimneys. One night the main child has a 
dream that he dies and an angel takes him and his fellow chimney sweepers to heaven where 
he lives in a clean and loving afterlife. At the beginning of the poem we get an introduction to 
the character of which the story is being told in the perspective of,  

At the end of the piece we start to notice that one thing leaves the subjects fate hanging. This 
thing is belonging, or hope lets just say. Belonging and hope are one of the main things that 
drives people in life. The thing that can ultimately define somebody's “Identity.” We tend to look 
at things differently in our everyday lives but in reality we go to school in “hopes” we get into a 
good school and get a good job and don't get screwed over with debt, etc. This is “our” 
scenario here. However the people in these poems find themselves on the brink of suicide. 
What do they turn to. Belonging. The concept of comparing the two is that ones identity is 
shaped by not only their upbringing but also the place they want or aspire to be.  

The first one is about the dream and talks about the hope, or ideal that they kind of cling to. 
Same goes for the next two talking about ideals then origin. The last one is very interesting to 
me because they talk about god being their father. The boys dont have fathers anymore which 
is what makes this line so significant. There are still people to this day who have the same 
mind forged manacles as these children who feel that they do not fit into society.