{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/eng/sie/sie09.htm","path":"neu/eng/sie/sie09.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/sie/sie09.htm","text":"Songs of Innocence and of Experience, by William Blake, [1789-1794]\nWhen my mother died I was very young,\n And my father sold me while yet my tongue,\n Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep.\nSo your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.\n Theres little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head\n That curl\u2019d like a lambs back, was shav\u2019d, so I said,\n Hush Tom never mind it, for when your head's bare,\n You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.\nAnd so he was quiet, & that very night,\n As Tom was a sleeping he had such a sight,\n That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned & Jack\n Were all of them lock\u2019d up in coffins of black,\nAnd by came an Angel who had a bright key,\n And he open\u2019d the coffins & set them all free.\n Then down a green plain leaping laughing they run\n And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.\nThen naked & white, all their bags left behind,\n They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.\n And the Angel told Tom, if he\u2019d be a good boy,\n He\u2019d have God for his father & never want joy.\nAnd so Tom awoke and we rose in the dark\n And got with our bags & our brushes to work.\n Tho\u2019 the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm.\n So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.","title":"Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Songs of Innocence:...","type":"page"}