Imagery and metaphors

Imagery

Imagery – the use of descriptive language – is created in “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake using contrast. The poet presents two very opposed images of children. In the first one, describing  reality, they live miserable lives working in the chimneys and sleeping in soot (l. 4), waking up in the dark and getting ready for work even in cold days:

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark
And got with our bags & our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold,… (ll. 21-23)

The opposing image is only a dream of one of the children, Tom, who is dreaming about being in Heaven, clean and carefree:

Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run,
And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.

Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind. (ll. 15-18)

Apart from the overall imagery, the poet also employs several specific tropes or figures of speech, which further add to the lyrical qualities of the text:

Allusions

The poem includes several religious allusions. The first one is to ‘the lamb of God’ when the speaker describes Tom’s hair, which alludes to the idea of victi...