William Blake, Songs of Innocence: The Chimney Sweeper
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue,
Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep,
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So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.
That curl'd like a lambs back, was shav'd , so I said.
Hush Tom never mind it, for when your head's bare,
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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
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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 all free.
Then down a green plain leaping laughing they run
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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,
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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.
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So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.