‘Sooeep!’

Black as a chimney is his face,
     And ivory white his teeth,
  And in his brass-bound cart he rides,
     The chestnut blooms beneath.

‘Sooeep, Sooeep!’ he cries, and brightly peers
     This way and that, to see
  With his two light-blue shining eyes
     What custom there may be.

And once inside the house, he’ll squat,
     And drive his rods on high,
  Till twirls his sudden sooty brush
     Against the morning sky.

Then, ’mid his bulging bags of soot,
     With half the world asleep,
  His small cart wheels him off again,
     Still hoarsely bawling, ‘Sooeep!’