In William Blake’s poem “The Chimney Sweeper” (from Songs of Innocence), the speaker becomes a chimney sweep because his father sold him into the job after his mother died.

Quick Scoop

  • The speaker is a very young boy, probably around seven years old.
  • His mother dies when he is “very young,” leaving the family poor and vulnerable.
  • His father then sells him to a master sweep, effectively trading his childhood for money and survival.
  • The boy has so little agency that he can “scarcely cry weep weep weep” before he is already working.

This harsh beginning is Blake’s way of criticizing a society where desperate parents and a neglectful system allow children to be sold into dangerous labor.

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Find out how the speaker of William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” gets his job, why his father sells him, and what this reveals about child labor and society in the poem.

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