Blake originally wrote this poem to bring attention to the way in which a country, the church, and family have deserted a child in the hopes of creating a newer, greater world for themselves. Blake's outrage at the exploitation of helpless individuals comes out in "The Chimney Sweeper: from Songs of Experience." Here, I made an attempt to align the struggles of the children in Industrializing England with the child labor that is still happening to this day in the modern world. Here is the original print next to the original text, typed out.
A little black thing among 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 smil'd 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." |
A little black thing among the snow,
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Because I was happy upon the heath,
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"Where are thy father and mother? say?"
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