1When my mother died I was very young,
2And my father sold me while yet my tongue
3Could scarcely cry "'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!Double EntendreThe child's attempt to cry 'sweep!' sounds like 'weep!', highlighting their sorrow and labor."
4So your chimneys I sweep, & in soot I sleep.
6There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
7That curled like a lamb's back, was shav'd: so I said,
8"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare
9You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."
11And so he was quiet, & that very night,
12As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!
13That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack,
14Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of blackSymbolismThe black coffins symbolize the dark chimneys they are trapped in, and the threat of death..
16And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
17And he open'd the coffins & set them all free;
18Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
19And wash in a river, and shine in the Sun.
21Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,
22They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
23And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
24He'd have God for his father, & never want joy.
26And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,
27And got with our bags & our brushes to work.
28Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;
29So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.