The Chimney Sweeper is featured as a part of William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence”, which corresponds with a child’s perspective on grim living conditions and adversity. The Chimney Sweeper tells of the young narrator who is essentially forced to work as a chimney sweeper. He and his companion, Tom Dacre, witness the children who work alongside him “locked up in coffins of black” – symbolizing their inability to escape from the harsh lifestyle. Coffins are a symbol of death, which is possibly a metaphor for both salvation and their loss of innocence after having been subjected to years of working.

A stark contrast is made in the third stanza, in which Tom Dacre dreams of an Angel that sets the children free. The children then run off into the field, laughing and with the sun shining upon them. However, the Angel tends to be just a manifestation of the hopes of being liberated from the confinement. He desperately clings on to dreams of meeting an angel that will save him. However, he knows that it is futile – he is, in the end, still a chimney sweeper and the only salvation hinted in the poem is death.

The engraving by William Blake of The Chimney Sweeper is very vibrant with hues of green and blue (which are colors that correspond with nature). Unlike the poem which offers a more direct hint of apprehension through words, the image is hauntingly cheerful. Children are shown linking hands and putting their arms up in the air – usually a sign of celebration (or of captivity, although I don’t believe it applies here). The engraving is subtly ominous because it shows what I depict to be an angel, clothed in a robe with a pink hue. The pink is rather deceptive, as it seems the angel is lowering a child onto a coffin. What I feel is largely different from the engraving and the poem is that the poem offers background insight with a child’s perspective. On the other hand, the engraving features a group of children, which tends to be more detached.