... comfort offered in Experience's version. Here the sweep's unfeeling sanctimonious parents have clothed him in the clothes of death and taught him to sing the notes of woe. Religion is seen to be firmly on the side of the parents who are both gone up to the church to pray'. God himself ... this tender stage in their lives: 'leaping' and 'laughing' in the sunshine. In the Songs of Experience version, the narrator introduces the boy chimney sweep as no more than a 'little black thing'. The child is so young that he cannot even pronounce the traditional cry of 'sweep, sweep' which the chimne...

• Word Count: 1564
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate