An inexperienced reader may suggest that William Blake's poem "The Chimney Sweepers" is a poem about having hope in unfortunate situations. However, it is much more despairing than that. If you focus on the wordplay throughout the poem it is disturbingly close to resembling a nursery rhyme, although this poem is nothing near a child's story  --  with symbols of death, child labor, and the corruption throughout London, this poem is about quite the opposite of hope. Blake brings to light his themes of innocence, death, and suffering through dramatic word choice, symbolism, and a child's point of view to convey the despairing, hopeless lifestyle that these chimney sweeper children suffered. 

Right from the beginning of the poem the speaker fills you with a sense of empathy for the loss of his mother and neglect of his father at such a young age: this sets up an emotional connection to the poem from the very start. Blake's choice to use a child's perspective throughout the poem was a wise one because it leads the reader to feel an intense sadness, which is what Blake was aiming for in this unfortunately very realistic poem. "And my father sold me while yet my tongue/Could scarcely cry" (2) makes you feel for the young boy, not only did his mother pass away but then his father wants nothing to do with him and sells him into child labor, before he could even speak? Clearly the speaker has had a hard life as it is, but then it gets worse as we discover further on in the poem what exactly his dad sold him to. Although, after learning some background information about the speaker we are introduced to another young chimney sweeper named Tom Dacre, who we spend a large amount time hearing about. The speaker introduces Tom by calling him "little Tom Dacre" (5) that leads us to believe that the speaker is in fact older than Tom. We can also confirm this as we go on throughout the poem the speaker gives Tom advice, acting as an older brother type figure. "And so he was quiet; and that very night, As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight -- " (9-10). Blake's wordplay and rhyming sounds much like a nursery rhyme, although with a poem consisting of such dark circumstances such as: "thousands of sweepers/Were all of them locked up in coffins of black" (11-12) readers can agree that even though this poem is told by a child, it is no poem meant to be heard by children's ears.  

Blake uses a plethora of symbols throughout his poem, many of which may have double meaning. The symbols begin as soon as the first stanza when the speaker mentions that he "sleeps in soot" (4) although this may be literal, we can also take this as a metaphor for the fact that his somber life revolves around chimney sweeping so much that he can never escape the soot. Another obvious symbol is when the speaker tells Tom to not cry about his head being shaved "You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair" (7-8) white hair can be recognized as a symbol for purity and innocence in a young child, and the soot obviously resembling the darkness in their life. When tom has a dream of the boys locked up in coffins of black there are many different ways we could view this; are the coffins black because that is the color of them or are they black because of the soot covering them? Or are the coffins just a metaphor for the chimneys themselves? Blake most likely intended for this to be a multi-meaning symbol. Also in Tom's dream he mentions names of some of the other chimney sweepers which include Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack  --  these names our quite average names, Blake did this on purpose because it shows that the boys are not anything special, these generic names emphasize the fact that these chimney sweeper boys are very common, lower class people. Another symbol throughout Toms dream is a reference to a bible verse if you are familiar with Matthew 16:19 which references Jesus giving Peter a "key" to the kingdom of heaven "And by came an angel who had a bright key,  And he opened the coffins and set them all free;" (13-14). The dream then references the boys leaping and laughing running in the sunshine and playing in the river, which closely resembles what we would picture heaven to be like. So first the boys die and then they go to heaven? This is such a sad dream, or is it giving them hope that their life will be better once they die? Regardless it is still pretty saddening that they would have to die to achieve happiness in their life. "So if all do their duty they need not fear harm." (24) The last line in the poem suggest that if they do all their duties they will be sent to heaven and be free at last, some readers may think that Blake is suggesting that is the way to go about things but if you read closely, Blake is in fact saying the opposite. Blake is being a bit ironic here to show us that these kids are suffering in all aspects of life. 

Another recognizable thing that reassures Blake's themes throughout the poem is his word choice throughout the poem. Blake uses phrases such as "scarcely cry" (3) to explain that the speaker was not even old enough to talk yet. We can assume that Blake uses this kind of language to not only add dramatic affect but also appeal to the time era of this poem, which is the 18th century in London. Blake uses the term "curled like a lambs back" (6) to describe Tom's hair, which we can assume is curly. Also the fact that Blake chose to compare his hair to a lamb, which are known for being sweet and innocence, much like Tom himself.  When the angel visits Tom in a dream the angel tells him to be a "good boy' Blake says this ironically because of course Tom is going to be a good boy, he doesn't have much of a choice. Blake definitely says this on purpose, because we already know Tom, the speaker, and all the other sweeper boys are "good" boys, who have a hard life. When the boys are going to heaven in the dream Blake uses "Then naked and white"(17) to describe the boys leaving this earth to achieve happiness and freedom at once. The use of naked and white is not intended to describe their color but their innocence and purity. We can easily identify all of the different uses of colors and contrasts used throughout the poem that are used to aid in Blake's themes of innocence and death. So after the dream is over the speaker says "we rose in the dark" (21) dark meaning literal darkness due to the time of day but also intended to be meant as the darkness and evil that their lives entail.  Another example of this is when the speaker says "Tom was happy and warm" (23) we can conclude that Blake chose to say "warm" was not because Tom was actually warm, because it says previous to this that the morning was very cold, but that he meant it in a way that little Tom was relieve by his dream  --  he knew he would be granted freedom and happiness in the after life, after completing his miserable life full of odious task and misfortune, which by itself is quite heartbreaking. 

While "The Chimney Sweepers" can easily be comprehended as a heart-wrenching poem about the devastatingly truthful conditions of child labor in the 18th century, it is even more traumatic as we look at it closely. Blake does a successful job at using symbols to point out the irony of these children's fate by using double meaning in many of his word choices. Some readers who do not look close enough to the poem may believe that Blake agrees with the idea that the boys must fulfill their duties first and then they will be granted eternal happiness and freedom, by death of course. Although this is very untrue, Blake is actually saying how fallacious that whole concept is  --  live a horrible and miserable life and the only way out is death? After doing a close reading of this poem the reader may make a reasonable assumption that Blake does not agree with many things about the industrial revolution, but feels most passionate about the harming of children in order to achieve cheap labor. We are reassured of this by Blake's use of word choice, symbols, and child's point of view throughout the "The Chimney Sweepers" poem to convey the themes of innocence of the young children and the evil and harsh conditions of their lives. 

