The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience) Themes

"The Chimney Sweeper" is one Big Fat Bummer. It's just chock full of misery. The speaker sees the child crying "'weep! 'weep!" in notes of woe," and then he tells the speaker that he learned those...

The speaker of "The Chimney Sweeper" describes the chimney sweeper as a "black thing." Black is the color of death and other bad things. The chimney sweeper is well aware of the death-like quality...

Okay, okay, so "The Chimney Sweeper" isn't very happy. but the chimney sweeper mentions happiness several times. At first, the sweeper says he used to be happy, before he was mistreated by his pare...

When we first meet "The Chimney Sweeper," he is alone in the snow. It sure looks like he's abandoned. At the end of the first stanza, and again in the third stanza, the sweeper talks about how his...