William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Innocence and from Songs of Experience

Read a biography of William Blake at: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/116.

"The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Innocence (1789)
InnocencePlate of "The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Innocence by William Blake.
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 your 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 locked up in coffins of black,

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And he open'd the coffins & set them all 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.


"The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Experience (1794)
ExperiencePlate of "The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Experience by William Blake.
A little black thing among the snow:
Crying weep, weep, in notes of woe!
Where are thy father & mother? say?
They are both gone up to the church to pray.

Because I was happy upon the heath
And smil'd among the winters snow:
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.

And because I am happy & dance & sing,
They think they have done me no injury:
And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King,
Who make up a heaven of our misery.