Begins with a child who is sold by his father after his mother dies to be a chimney sweeper. Blake goes on to describe the conditions of the horror: “So I sweep your chimneys and sleep in the soot,” as a way to demonstrate that a child cleans chimneys and sleeps in the soot at night. Blake is about a boy named Tom who cries because he shaved his head. They did this because the soot got in their hair and accumulated, causing problems for the children while they worked. The children did not last long in the chimney sweep because the soot entered their lungs or they were even trapped inside. He talks about how many children died and what they did with them by saying, "Those thousands of street cleaners, Dick, Joe, Ned or Jack. They were all locked in black coffins." It goes on to say that the child saw an angel who opened all the children's coffins and released them into heaven as Jesus was resurrected on the third day. They left behind all their mortal possessions as they no longer needed them and ascended to heaven. In the Bible, God sent angels to deliver messages like the one given in this poem. The angel tells Tom that if he is a good boy, God will be his father and he will never want joy again. Relieved by this, Tom was happy and continued to do his job without fear of getting out of it