by William Blake (1757 - 1827)
The chimney sweeper
Language: English
When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry ``'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!'' So your chimneys I sweep, & in soot I sleep. There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, That curl'd like a lamb's back, was shav'd: so I said ``Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when you head's bare You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.'' And so he was quiet, & that very night, As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight! That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack, Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black. And by came an Angel who had a bright key, And he open'd the coffins & set them free; Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run, And wash in a river, and shine in the Sun. Then naked & white, all their bags left behind, They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind; And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy, He'd have God for his father, & never want joy. And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark, And got with our bags & our brushes to work, Tho the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm, So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.
Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "The chimney sweeper", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 7, first published 1789 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by William Bolcom (b. 1938), "The chimney sweeper", 1956-81 [ solo voices, chorus, orchestra ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 14 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Vincent Henry Palmer Caillard, Sir (1856 - 1930), "The chimney sweeper", published 1891 [ voice and piano ], from The Songs of Innocence of William Blake, no. 7, London : Novello, Ewer & Co. [sung text not yet checked]
- by Norman Curtis (b. 1933), "The chimney sweeper", c1959 [ voice and piano ], from William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ole Carsten Green (b. 1922), "The chimney sweeper", op. 27b no. 7 (1973) [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 7 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Joseph Holbrooke (1878 - 1958), "The chimney sweeper", op. 130 no. 13 (1934), from Songs of Innocence, no. 13 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ellen Raskin (1928 - 1984), "The chimney sweeper", published 1966 [ voice and piano or guitar ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 7, Garden City, NY : Doubleday [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ronald Stevenson (b. 1928), "The chimney sweeper", 1948-50, rev. 1965 [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 7, another version exists for voice, flute, and string quintet (composed 1966-71) [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Ahmed E. Ismail
This text was added to the website: 2005-01-17
Line count: 24
Word count: 229