THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER: SUMMARY

The poem opens with a young boy explaining how he was thrust into the life of being a chimney
sweeper. When he was very young, his father had sold him after the death of his mother; destined to
work as a chimney sweeper. It was a dangerous, menial work where the young boys had to climb into
the narrow chimneys to clean the soot.

In the second stanza, the focus shifts to another young sweeper, Tom Dacre, who had soft blonde hair
that was forcibly shaved, probably as a punishment. The narrator is found trying to calm the little boy
saying that since his head is now shaved, the soot can no longer dirty his curls.

Tom was pacified and that very night Tom dreamt that he and some of his sweeper friends were locked
up in black coffins (symbolizing the narrow soot filled chimneys). The dream saw the appearance of
an angel who opened the coffins with a bright key and set the children free. Once freed, the children
ran on vast green plains, happy and laughing. They then washed themselves and played in the warm
sunshine. This ritual of cleaning is symbolic of the children being released from the state of slavery.

Tom dreamt that the little chimney sweepers had left their heavy bags (either filled with cleaning gear
or those in which they used to collect the black soot) behind and they rose above the clouds and
played with the wind. The white naked boys rising above the clouds also remind us of famous paintings
where angels are also depicted in this very way. This meant that now the children were far from their
terrible lives and closer to god. Then appeared an Angel who told Tom that if he would be a good boy
then God would be like a father to him and he would never experience sorrow. Here ‘good’ means to
be a good Christian i.e. a person who is devout, honest, church-going and one who does his work
sincerely. The poet draws a parallel to the practice prevalent at that time. he indicates that the child
labourers were promised a bright future if they followed the law (church) without questioning its
verdicts. Often, this was a way in which slaves were oppressed.

In the last stanza we find Tom waking up, picking his brush and resuming his job as a chimney sweeper.
The third line of the stanza suggests that although nothing had changed in Tom’s life, he felt hopeful
(happy and warm) that one day he would be free from his life of bondage, as promised by the Angel.
The last line is a critique of the system that brainwashes the slaves into believing that if they do their
duty without complaining or questioning, their lives would change for the better someday. The little
boys, thus, are dragged back to their life of drudgery with the illusion of a bright future.

The poem is ironic as it reveals the double standards of the of the privileged social class who pretended
to be true Christians i.e. kind, charitable and honest individuals. However, this was just a garb. They
were simply tools to hoodwink and exploit the economically weaker sect of the society.