The Chimney Sweeper

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1789

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Lamb of God

The simile comparing Tom’s hair to the wool on “a lamb’s back” (Line 6) invokes the Christian figure of the Lamb of God (or Agnus Dei in Latin). The phrase originates in the exclamation of John the Baptist encountering Jesus Christ: “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). It has a prominent place in Roman Catholic liturgy, between the Lord’s prayer and the Communion, where it calls to mind both Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross and the traditional sacrifice of the lamb described in the Old Testament.

In Blake’s poem, Tom’s hair is sacrificed to the demands of the work he performs; it would get in the way as Tom cleans the insides of chimneys, and children with dirty hair would be a nuisance to their guardians. The hair serves as a synecdoche, a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole: The sacrifice of Tom’s hair stands for the sacrifice of Tom, and many poor children like him, to the capitalist hunger for cheap labor and certain individuals’ and institutions’ pretense of helping those whom they exploit. Like elsewhere in Songs of Innocence, Blake sets forth a parallel between the lamb and the child, both representing purity and lack of guile, precious yet vulnerable to predation and exploitation.

Coffins

At the start of his dream, Tom sees thousands of young chimney sweepers like himself “locked up in coffins of black” (Line 12). The coffins symbolize the boys’ debilitating and stultifying lives—they spend their lives buried alive until they will be interred for real. The chimneysweeps spend much of their days inside dark and filthy chimneys and their nights in dingy, cramped quarters. Instead of being educated and prepared for a better life in adulthood, the children provide cheap labor while being told that only hard work and compliance will lead them to salvation. It is this spiritual imprisonment of obedience and submission that is the most difficult to break through. The Angel in the dream, representing Tom’s desire for freedom, liberates the boys from the coffins, but their freedom remains limited because it will only happen after death, and it is restrained by the obligation to “be a good boy” (Line 19).

Baptism

The moment in Tom’s dream when the freed children “wash in a river” (Line 16) is a reference to baptism, one of the key Christian rituals, symbolizing admission to the church. The ritual always includes water, ranging from sprinkling droplets on the head to full immersion, and is practiced in many Christian denominations. Baptism stands for purification from sin and renewal. In the poem, the boys’ submersion in water is followed by their exposure to “the Sun” (Line 16), in contrast to the darkness of the coffins, and their casting aside the clothes and tools which embody their exploitation. These acts lead to their ascension onto the clouds—their acceptance to heaven. Too young to have sinned, they are cleansed of the sins that others have committed against them. However, Blake suggests that even as they are liberated from material hardship in Tom’s dream, the boys endure the spiritual violence of being brainwashed into believing that God’s mercy belongs only to those who quietly and patiently accept their social and economic oppression.