When reading this poem the sensatiosn that wake up the reader’s mind, and heart, are those of woe, pain and sadness. The recreation of the image of a group of poor little boys sweeping the chimneys at night in THE SONGS OF INNOCENCE 1789, and the image of a boy compared with a “black thing” weeping while his parents go to church makes the reader realize of the poor conditions of misery and explotation in which children lived at the time of William Blake. This is the theme of the poem. The voice of the poem is the position of a boy which is supposed to suffer those horrible conditions. The subject “I” makes reference to the “narrator” speaking in first person singular, making the poem more personal and getting close to the reader.

Regarding the meaning of the poem it can be said that this expression of such a negative situation is a serious criticism to the society that let things like this happen and permit children to work in those imposible conditions. It is a message to those families that go to “church” to show the rest their good behaviour towards public society while, at the same time, they forget the basic rights of their own sons, sending them to a hard work, as it is “sweeping chimneys”.

The “narrator” here makes an exposition of his paradoxical situation, telling the reader that “while” his parents think they make him “happy” because they see him “dance and sing” they are doing all the contrary, they “taught me to sing the notes of woe”. And this we observe by the use of interesting contrapositions regarding vocabulary:

·             Black -  snow

·             Happy -  death

·             Sing – woe

·             Heaven – misery

Using these contrapositions the reader is always shocked by the breaking of the expectations and the oposed feelings.

Failure in education and communication within the familiy are important points to take into account when reading this poem, because here parents think that they are making the child happy because they see him dance and sing, they have blinded their eyes voluntarily  not to see the real situation of pain they are making him suffer. What he really has in his heart is “woe”, they “taught him the notes of woe”. With this poem Blake criticises the family system  existing at the end of the 18^th Century in England and which he had to live and see, and in which children had to work for parents to live their own life.

Another key image is the clear separation of the two worlds described in the poem: the one in which parents live a “correct” way, and reality in which children are suffering as a result of their parent’s will.

At the end of the poem Blake spreads his view of criticism including “God and his Priest and King” making the government and the church responsible for this horrible situation too, because serving them and obeying their rules they leave apart their love for their children and their responsibility for growing and educating them.

The tone of the poem is that of sadness for the described situation and, at the same time, the tone of anger for that situation that he cannot change is noticeable too.

Regarding the structure, Blake follows the exposition of the situation by starting with the description of a general image, speaking in an impersonal way by using the third person singular to make the situation more general, and goes to a more concrete vision of the problem by naming the responsible ones for that situation. This way he increases the interest of the reader.

Regarding the rhymes and the rythm, we see that they are clear and easy, it is not complex at all for it is suposed to be a boy expressing his feelings. The language used is simple too for the same reason.