PLEASE HELP ME understand this POEM!?

Question

A little black thing in 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.

"Because I was happy upon the heath,
And smiled among the winter's snow,
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.

"And because I am happy and dance and sing,
They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God and his priest and king,
Who make up a heaven of our misery."

Answer 1

This poem, "The Chimney Sweep", by William Blake is about Blake's distain for the Church and culturally religious or subjective thinking. He once wrote in praise of lucid, objective thinking, "If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite." Edwin Powell Hubble wrote, "Equipped with his five senses, man explores the Universe and calls the adventure Science". In the second stanza above, Blake mentions objective, healthy naturalness in the heath and the purity of winter's snows. He contrasts that lucidity with the blackness of the chimney-sweep, blackness that is the soot or foulness of man's subjective cultural deviancy from natural purity or truth. These were brave thoughts to utter in Blake's times.

Answer 2

William Blake wrote this ditty. Consider the following...

The first stanza begins by introducing the youth, or, in general, the youth of this world. Blake refers to then as, "little black thing...." The image of the color black that Blake creates suggests a tainted and perhaps corrupted mind. He is sure to also make a distinct contrast between the black color of the child and the white color of the snow; it is sin placed against innocence. The stanza continues by highlighting the extreme emotion that the youth feels. These "...notes of woe" are powerful and represent the young person's feelings of anguish. Toward whom? The stanza finishes with a question of, "Where are the youth's parents?" Evidently, they have gone off on their own to pray in the church, the center of all goodness.
Stanza two presents the youth in a different way than before. Here, he is pictured as happy and full of smiles, although there is an opposing reference of, "they clothed me in clothes of death." These parents have nurtured and cared for the boy in a distorted and unusual way, or at least the boy feels as though they have. Teaching him to "sing the notes of woe" is not a typical practice that parents choose to teach their children. Obviously, the youth hides his shameful opinions of his parents by presenting himself as joyful and complacent.
The last stanza reiterates the fact that although the youth seems to be content with his family life, he is truly not. There is so much deeply rooted pain within this youth that is struggling to be set free. He has so much to say, so much with which he is dissatisfied. His parents, again referred to as "they," are either unaware of the pain they have caused their child or they are ignoring it and are continuing to let it occur. They look elsewhere for love. They spend their time worshipping God. The end of the stanza causes the questions to be asked, "If God, who is the source of all goodness, is looked to by the parents, then why is it that they, in turn, show no love to their flesh and blood? How can they have such disregard for his life? "Does heaven make up misery? Does it create it?" The youth, by the end of the poem, has confirmed that his painful feelings are ultimately caused by what goes on in heaven.

Answer 3

I think it is about a very young child who has to go to a funeral. The child does not understand what it is all about, she has been taught how to act by her parents. Because of her innocence, they left the child outside to play while they went into the church. She is dressed in black (clothes of death) and is playing in the snow on the heath (desolate, craggy land). Or maybe it is her parents' funeral? and "they" refers to other people?

Answer 4

You need to give some background info - who is the author? Where did they live? What time period?

Answer 5

uhm... it sounds sorta like these parents make this person believe in god, even though she doesnt believe or ike god. even though she seems so happy she isnt. i get it but its hard to explain. i like it.

Answer 6

shows hypocricy.....