How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! (1-3)
Seriously? His own dad sold this kid into chimney sweeping slavery? Treating your own kid like a commodity has got to be high on the list of parenting no-nos. How can you hang on to kid-dom when your own dad doesn't see you for what you are—a child?
Quote #2
There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved: […] (5-6)
Tom Dacre is compared to a lamb, which is pretty much the most adorable, innocent animal on the planet (save sloths, of course). The fact that he is shaved, and no longer resembles a lamb, suggests that his childhood, his lambishness, is gone, all thanks to the brutal chimney-sweeping industry.
Quote #3
["]You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair." (8)
While the whiteness of Tom's hair seems to suggest innocence, we can't help thinking of old age as well. The fact that Tom already has white hair suggests that he is already old, that he has already lost his childhood, while it also suggest that he's innocent and unspoiled at the same time. Nifty contrast, huh?
Quote #4
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black. (11-12)
The children are locked up in coffins when they should be out playing and enjoying their childhood. It doesn't get much more horrifying than that. It's like these tykes are doomed from the start. How can you have a childhood, when you know you'll come to an early end?
Quote #5
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun. (15-16)
Ugh, what a bummer. Tom's dream shows us what innocence should look like, and yet the only place it exists in the poem is in his mind. In a way, innocence is just a fantasy, something to hope for, and nothing more, at least for the children in the poem. It is a dream, in more senses than one.
Quote #6
Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind; (17-18)
The nakedness and whiteness of the children suggests innocence, because they're in their totally pure, natural state. But there's something weird about that rhyme on "behind" and "wind." The fact that it isn't perfect suggests that there is something imperfect about this picture of innocence. Maybe that imperfection comes from the fact that this isn't real at all; it's a pipedream.
Quote #7
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm. (23-24)
This description reminds us of the children playing in the dream, but it's more than a little weird. Tom shouldn't be happy, since he's living a pretty rough life, right? But he just woke up from an awesome dream, and that dream seems to help him get through the day.