Poetry

The Chimney Sweeper
When he was little his mother died and his father put him to work as a chimney sweeper before he was old enough to understand what was happening.

Tom was upset his head was shaved but the narrator calms him by saying without hair you won't get soot in it.

At night, Tom had a dream about other boys like him dying.

There was an Angel in the dream who let the boys who died free and they went and washed their 'baggage' and soot off their bodies.

The boys ran around free and naked and the Angel told sleeping Tom he could do this one day too if he is a good kid.

Then Tom woke up and he went to work happy and warm because of his dream even though it was cold and he was a chimney sweeper.

London
He is walking through industrial parts of Thames with a weak saddened look to impress upon others who see him.

He is in pain, he can feel and hear everyone's cries.

The happy city is now black/dark and blood is on the walls of the town (war?).

In the late hours around the town, it is cursed with baby cries and death.