Question

Read the stanza.

From "The Chimney Sweeper" 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.


In the first stanza from William Blake’s "The Chimney Sweeper," how does the speaker get his job?


He is given to his employer as a favor to his mother.


He is exchanged with money through a bribe.


He is sold to his employer by is father.

Answer 1

He is sold to his employer by is father.

Step-by-step explanation:

William Blake's poem "The Chimney Sweeper" from his "Songs of Innocence," tells the story of how a small boy was forced into employment as child labor which was a common practice in England of that time. This poem is a generalization of the prominent case of child labor through which some families get their incomes.

Narrated from the small boy's perspective, the first stanza reads

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

It is clearly evident to see that the young boy's employment came at the death of his mother. His father sold him to be a chimney sweeper even before he could barely talk or speak.