| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | The Chimney-sweeper | | By William Blake (1757–1827) |
| | | A LITTLE black thing among the snow, | |
| Crying ‘’weep! ’weep!’ in notes of woe! | |
| ‘Where are thy father and mother, say?’— | |
| ‘They are both gone up to the church to pray. | |
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| ‘Because I was happy upon the heath, | 5 |
| And smil’d among the winter’s snow, | |
| They clothed me in the clothes of death, | |
| And taught me to sing the notes of woe. | |
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| ‘And because I am happy and dance and sing, | |
| They think they have done me no injury, | 10 |
| And are gone to praise God and his Priest and King, | |
| Who make up a heaven of our misery.’ | | | | |
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