Lyric Poem · Nature
The Chimney Sweeper
A little black thing in the snow,
Crying "weep! weep!" in notes of woe!
"Where are thy father and mother? Say!" —
"They are both gone up to the church to pray.
"Because I was happy upon the heath,
And smiled among the winter's snow,
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.
"And because I am happy and dance and sing,
They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God and his priest and king,
Who make up a heaven of our misery."
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake — quilloak.com/poems/the-chimney-sweeper
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Chimney Sweeper
- Poet
- William Blake
- Length
- 12 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature, Sad, Winter
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 12 lines · 3 quatrains
- Line length
- Lines run 8-11 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- William Blake1757–1827
- Source record
- PoetryDBThe Chimney Sweeper by william-blake, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 f1b9288636a66ffd…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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