The Poet 195
There are thousands of sweepers— “Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack”— and
all of them are locked up in black coffi ns. They are experiencing
Death in Life. The coffi ns are the chimneys they sweep, where they
are confi ned for hours a day; and the coffi ns are the emblem of their
closed- off conditions, locked away from joy and plea sure and the
hopes that go with being young.
But in Tom’s dream, a power ful angel comes along and, with a
bright key, opens all the coffi ns and sets the chimney sweepers free.
Liberated, they experience a rebirth. “Down a green plain leaping
laughing they run / And wash in a river and shine in the Sun” (10).
Now the once- imprisoned sweeps are full of joy. “Naked & white,
all their bags left behind, / They rise upon clouds, and sport in the
wind” (10). The scene is of innocent, mildly erotic play, in which
the sweeps are released from slavery and free to be what they are,
children.
Who is this angel and what liberation does he bring? What is the
bright key he uses to release the children? The angel, one might say,
is the spirit of Chris tian ity, but in a rather complex sense. At the
heart of the poem is the beautiful vision of the once- enslaved chil-
dren free and romping in Nature. And such a vision is at the heart
of Jesus’ teaching. “Let the little children come unto me,” the Savior
says. He tells people that if they are going to be saved, they need to
make themselves openhearted as children. Jesus himself has a child-
like side. He’s often innocent and spontaneous, a free spirit. The
message that Jesus would have for the chimney sweeps is simple
and direct. No one has a right to do this to you. Nobody can make
you a slave, exploit you, cripple you, lead you into early sickness
and death. You have a right to get together and to rebel. At the very
least, you have a right to collect yourselves and run.
The angel delivers Christ’s vision, yes, but he delivers something
else as well. He interprets the dream in which he participates. In
the dream, he tells Tom that “if he’d be a good boy, / He’d have God