William Blake's poem "The Chimney Sweeper" gives us a look into the unfortunate lives of 18th century London boys whose primary job was to clear chimneys of the soot that accumulated on its interior; boys that were named "climbing boys" or "chimney sweepers." Blake, a professional engraver, wrote this poem (aabb rhyme), in the voice of a young boy, an uneducated chimney sweeper. This speaker is obviously a persona, a fictitious character created by Blake, as it is apparent that he wasn't a child or a chimney sweeper at the time he wrote this poem.

The Chimney Sweeper is divided in six stanzas; the first stanza of this narrative poem starts off with the young chimney sweeper, the persona, explaining naively his cause for being a climbing boy. It is widely known in history that the chimney sweepers used to...