The Chimney Sweeper

The Chimney Sweeper

• And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
• And he opened the coffins & set them all free;
• Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run,
• 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,
• 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.
• Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;
• So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.
• When my mother died I was very young,
• And my father sold me while yet my tongue
• Could scarcely cry " 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!"
• So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.
• There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head
• That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved, so I said,
• "Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,
• 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,
• Were all of them locked up in coffins of black;

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