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In his works Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, William Blake introduces the reader to the contrary and often oxymoronic nature of life throughout the industrial revolution in England in the eighteenth century. Considered one of the pioneers of English romanticism, the poems touch upon themes such as the politics of social institutions, freedom, science, art, nature, and childhood. Looking at one poem from each collection–both titled “The Chimney-Sweeper”–Blake illustrates innocence as both obedience and resistance against modern exploitation, and highlights the lack of protection and care of children by the dominant social institutions.

Both poems explore a dark situation, wherein the titular chimney sweeper is a symbol of the many children who were employed as essentially child slaves in order to service the wealthy middle class. However within the titular dichotomy, the scenario is introduced in parallel both from the innocent and illogical mind of a child and from the perspective of someone who sees the abusive conditions more objectively. As a result of the increasing industrialisation, urbanisation surged and the number of chimneys needing to be cleaned massively increased (Kelly 6-7). Cleaning was established as important to hinder the build-up of soot and prevent fires, particularly emphasised after the great fire of London in 1666. In order to fit into the narrow chimneys to clean them, small children as young as four years old were taken on as apprentices, despite the working conditions being harsh and hazardous for their health (ibid).

In the first “The Chimney-Sweeper” from Songs of Innocence (hereafter called ‘the first poem’), the narrator is clearly established as Tom Dacre, a child whose father sold him to work as a chimney sweep when he was so young he “Could scarcely cry ‘Weep! weep! weep! weep!’”. By giving the child a name and having him speak in first person, the poem feels personal and intimate. Later in the poem Blake also emphasises how many children are in the same situation as Tom, by writing “thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack”, all names which feel familiar to the reader. In contrast, the second “The Chimney-Sweeper” from Songs of Experience (hereafter called ‘the second poem’) opens with the description “A little black thing among the snow”, dehumanising the protagonist and creating distance to the subject. The imagery of the small child covered in soot from work, is viewed in contrast to the white snow, which represents both the purity of childhood and nature in opposition to urban industrial life.

Blake also utilises colours to emphasise between the innocence of the child and the dark reality of society in the first poem. In the second stanza Tom cries and is scolded when his curly hair is shaved. White in colour and described “like a lamb’s back”, evoking the image of the sacrifice of a young and vulnerable animal. The shaving is justified by an unidentified voice stating “‘Hush, Tom! never mind it, for, when your head’s bare,/You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.’” This can suggest that children must detach their position as a chimney sweep from their innocence in order to maintain their purity despite their circumstances. However in reality, Tom has no agency in terms of his appearance, as his head will be unclean and skin tarnished regardless.

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To end the first stanza in the first poem, Tom Dacre declares “So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep”. By using the pronoun “you”, Blake equates the reader to the wealthy owners of houses with chimneys which need to be cleaned, and allows the child to address them directly, creating an atmosphere of uncomfortable yet child-like honesty. This tension continues when the third stanza ends with describing how Tom imagines all the children at night, “locked up in coffins of black”, which draws a parallel between the dark claustrophobic spaces in a chimney and death itself. Continuing in the fourth stanza, Blake returns to the notion of childlike wonder and innocence as Tom dreams of an angel setting them all free, running in nature and laughing. While in reality the soot from chimneys would be near-impossible to wash out from their pores every single day, in the dream the children “wash in a river, and shine in the sun./Then naked and white” they return to their pre-corrupted state. Then “the angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy,/He’d have God for his father, and never want joy.” After he wakes up from his dream, Tom goes to work feeling happy and motivated by the dream to complete his duty.

Tom’s experience in the dream can be viewed through multiple lenses. One reading views the dream as a form of escapism which directly allows the children to get up and continue their work, day by day. In this sense one can view innocence as a form of resistance to the dark reality, and the dream becomes the symbol of childish resilience (Davis 389-90). On the other hand it could be viewed as a negative image of innocence as naive obedience, wherein the promise of “never want[ing] joy” is read as the child will no longer consider joy as an option for now, only living to fulfil their duty with the promise of having God for a father in an eventual afterlife (McGarvan 6).

Meanwhile in the second poem, Blake takes a clearer stance on the struggles of innocent imagination. The titular ‘Experience’ is not describing a difference in the situation, but rather a change in attitude for the child who is now aware of their own exploitation. The unnamed child explains to the reader how his parents have “clothed [him] in the clothes of death”, because he was such a happy and resilient child. By saying “They think they have done me no injury,/And are gone to praise God and His priest and king” Blake does not only blame the parents, but showcases the failure of multiple social institutions including the church and the government. In the last line of the third and last stanza, the child establishes a view directly opposing the angel in the first poem, stating that the aforementioned institutions “made up a heaven of our misery.’”. Innocence no longer sustained by childish imagination, the child has been corrupted by his experience as a child labourer, and no longer believes joy is accessible to him.

By contrasting the perspective of the two poems, William Blake illustrates the different positions of innocence, as is a common theme in English romanticism. While the first poem evokes contrasting emotions by utilising the voice of the child itself, and using his childlike imagination as symbolic illustration, the second poem takes a more direct approach and identifies the institutions which fail to protect the children from the dark side of a rapidly modernising and industrialising world.