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Gilbert Lopez Jr.

English 15A

Dr. William L. James

October 2009

Sweeping Nightmares

While discussing the magnificence that is seized by every butterfly, Primo Levi

states, “The butterfly's attractiveness derives not only from colors and symmetry: deeper

motives contribute to it. We would not think them so beautiful if they did not fly, or if they

flew straight and briskly like bees, or if they stung, or above all if they did not enact the

perturbing mystery of metamorphosis: the latter assumes in our eyes the value of a badly

decoded message, a symbol, a sign”. To make easier, this states that human interpretation of

nature and the world is nothing more than one understanding of what actually is. This same

principle is true for William Blake when he wrote both, The Songs of Innocence and The

Songs of Experience. While on the surface, his poems seem straightforward, the true

meaning can be decoded a million different ways and still have more to uncover. These two

books are filled with poems that voice out Blake’s disapproval with the way society was

running the world and how the English viewed God, as well. Two of his most famous poems

are both named “The Chimney Sweeper”, and while they are drastically different in

appearance and meaning, the two are inseparable. In these poems, Blake is attempting to

point out the atrocities that take place within England’s border, and that it is societies fault

that these children have lost their innocence at such a young age. The way in which a creepy

caterpillar transforms into a beautiful butterfly, is the same a parallel to how the Chimney

Sweeper changes from Innocence to that of Experience. While Blake was not famous during
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his own lifetime, over the years Blake became the voice for those who had no words to

express their tribulations.

“The Chimney Sweeper”, from The Songs of Innocence, is told from the narrative of

a young boy who is attempting to cope with the harsh world that is England in the 18th

Century. To accomplish this, he begins dreaming of his future in Heaven to escape the

pressures and terrible conditions that come with being a chimney sweeper in England. At

first, Blake is setting up the background information about why these “sweeps” are in this

predicament. This young boy has been forced into chimney sweeping since birth, the day his

father sold him because he has no way to care for him after the death of his mother. Then

Blake discusses the conditions in which these sweeps work and live, “So your chimneys I

sweep and in soot I sleep” (Norton 1414) and how the sweeps choose to deal with them.

Here, Blake describes how these sweeps were forced to sleep in the same soot that they

cleaned from inside the chimney, pointing out that England cared not for these children.

Tom Dacre is a sweep that Blake introduces in the second stanza, and he represents all the

sweeps and how most deal with the loss of their innocence, by crying as children tend to do

when scared. By giving this sweep, this nobody, a name Blake is provoking the people in

England view this as their own child, and to actually take notice to how society is stripping

these children of their innocence.

Although, it is a perilous time for these children, the narrator is able to keep his

head above the fray, and tries to comfort his fellow sweeps by explaining to his friend as

his head is being shaved, “You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair” (Norton

1414). This bit of advice helps Tom sleep through the night; and he begins travelling

through a dream to take peek at the Heaven that is waiting upon his forthcoming death. In
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this dream, Tom is visited by an Angel who frees all the children from their caskets that are

the chimneys they work in, and the children are, “Then naked and white” (Norton 1414) to

symbolize their ascent to Heaven. In many Christian teachings, God expects humanity to

be happy, even in the worst of times, as with the story of Job and the trials that God puts

him through. Blake, knowing this, gave a solution that could only come from a true

innocence; The Angel then leaves Tom with advice to escape the cruelty of child labor in

England, “…be a good boy, He’d have God for his father and never want joy” (Norton

1414). This dream of an after-life is what keeps the sweeps trudging on through their

miserable existence. Here Blake is pointing at the fact that society at this time did not care

about these innocent children being forced into labor and actually blamed the sweeps for

having to work in the chimneys, as if they brought this cruel punishment upon themselves.

This ending line sums up the innocence of the child, “So if all do their duty, they need not

fear harm” (Norton 1414), the narrator is still clinging to this conviction and proves the true

innocence within a child.

If the caterpillar represents the innocent chimney sweeper, then the metamorphosis

to a butterfly can be compared to the chimney sweeper’s development into that of

Experience. No longer is this chimney sweeper crawling around the ground unaware of the

possibilities life holds and the surrounding world around him, in The Songs of Experience,

this sweep understands the fact that he is a victim of oppression from society.

To understand Blake, it is vital to understand the society that Blake is

communicating to. Blake begins the poem with a metaphor, “A little black thing among

the snow” (Norton 1419), the black thing being the sweeps covered in the soot from their

long days of working in the chimneys, with the snow being the purity that is believed to be
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England. It also means that the little black thing is barely seen, being surrounded by a field

of snow. This correlates to how society paid no consideration of these children that God

gave us to protect. As previously mentioned, this exhibits how humanity viewed these

children, as a contamination upon the faultlessness that is England. The reason that this

child has been left to serve as a sweep, is because he has been abandoned by his parents, so

that they can worship the English God, and he blames his childlike innocence for this

predicament. As a child, he was very innocent and happy playing in the snow, then,

“‘They clothed me in the clothes of death, And taught me to sing the notes of woe’”

(Norton 1419). These clothes of death correspond to the lifestyle that he will now be living

working inside chimneys, until death comes to get him at a young age, as it did to most

sweeps. The even more disheartening component of this poem is that the parents believe

that they have done no immoral acts, “And are gone to praise God and his Priest and King”

(Norton 1419). This is Blake presenting the suggestion that this sacramental relationship

that society has with the children is being abused and neglected. More specifically, Blake

places the blame upon the parents, the Church and King of England, as well as God himself

for allowing these dreadful crimes to ensue upon the children that God gave to the world to

protect and educate.

The concluding line in Blake’s experienced chimney sweeper is, “Who make up a

heaven of our misery” (Norton 1419). This is equivalent to John Milton’s renowned

quotation from Paradise Lost, “The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a heaven

of hell, and a hell of heaven”. Making heaven into a terrible place is exactly what society

has done to these children, stripping them of their virtuousness, and allowing society to

exploit them without even a pause to reflect on the damage that they have accomplished.
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And distinct from the innocent sweeper, the sweep of experience see’s no hope for his

potential and therefore, has no solutions to help to cope with these excruciating situations.

Also, contrasting from the innocent sweep, having experience has taught this sweep to not

be happy with his current state of affairs causing him to lose the Christian idea of

contentment with nothingness. Dissimilar from the inexperienced idea that innocence

possess, concerning superior behavior as a salvation from the oppression brought upon

them, experience brought a dark cloud block out any idea of sanguinity.

A constant thought in Blake philosophy is the principle of an innocence which leads

to experience and, eventually through understanding, a higher innocence. He uses this

belief in the structure of his poems, as they evolve from Songs of Innocence and Songs of

Experience; the higher innocence he speaks of is when the reader discovers the true

meaning and goal of his poems. These poems may seem to be black and white, but Blake

is really trying to let society know the atrocities that go on in London, and the world. The

idea that Blake is trying to convene in both “Chimney Sweeper” poems is that it is

societies’ job to act as guardian in the sacramental relationship that is between a child and

society. It was his hope that these atrocities that occur within our society would be wiped

away, and would be proud of the advancements that have been accomplished so far. Yet, it

is possible to imagine that if Blake was still alive to see the way the world has taken shape,

that he would, again, have to write a new set of poems to challenge society to solve the

problems that are still relevant in the modern era. Tennessee Williams once said, “All of us

are guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress”. Blake

would be quick to agree, and would go one step further by saying, “Humanity is just one

work in progress”.
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Works Cited

Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature.

Vol. B. Print.

Levi, Primo. "Primo Levi Quotes." ThinkExist. Web. 11 Oct. 2009.

<http://thinkexist.com/quotes/primo_levi/>.

Williams, Tennessee. "Tennessee Williams quotes." ThinkExist. Web. 11 Oct. 2009.

<http://thinkexist.com/quotes/tennessee_williams/>.