Uploaded June 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Here's a virtual movie of the first stanza of The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake. This short animation uses a soundtrack of a child chanting that I found around the net several years ago which I thought was rather pleasant.
"The Chimney Sweeper" is the title of two poems by William Blake, published in Songs of Innocence in 1789 and Songs of Experience in 1794.[2] The poem "The Chimney Sweeper" is set against the dark background of child labor that was prominent in England in the late 18th and 19th century. At the age of four and five, boys were sold to clean chimneys, due to their small size. These children were oppressed and had a diminutive existence that was socially accepted at the time. In the earlier poem, a young chimney sweeper recounts a dream had by one of his fellows, in which an angel rescues the boys from coffins and takes them to a sunny meadow; in the later poem, an apparently adult speaker encounters a child chimney sweeper abandoned in the snow while his parents are at church or possibly even suffered death where church is referring to being with God.
The Chimney Sweeper
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep![a]
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2015
Here's a virtual movie of the first stanza of The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake. This short animation uses a soundtrack of a child chanting that I found around the net several years ago which I thought was rather pleasant.
"The Chimney Sweeper" is the title of two poems by William Blake, published in Songs of Innocence in 1789 and Songs of Experience in 1794.[2] The poem "The Chimney Sweeper" is set against the dark background of child labor that was prominent in England in the late 18th and 19th century. At the age of four and five, boys were sold to clean chimneys, due to their small size. These children were oppressed and had a diminutive existence that was socially accepted at the time. In the earlier poem, a young chimney sweeper recounts a dream had by one of his fellows, in which an angel rescues the boys from coffins and takes them to a sunny meadow; in the later poem, an apparently adult speaker encounters a child chimney sweeper abandoned in the snow while his parents are at church or possibly even suffered death where church is referring to being with God.
The Chimney Sweeper
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep![a]
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2015
