Image Description

[plate 46 (Bentley 37, Erdman 37, Keynes 37)]
        The chimney sweeper of the text, a "little black thing among the snow" (line 1), walks down a city street bordered by buildings. He wears dark clothes or is covered with soot, the "clothes of death" (line 7), and perhaps wears a cap or hood on his head. He carries a pack of soot on his back, which he holds with his raised left arm; his right arm is at his side. The left side of his face is also dark with soot. The chimney sweep holds a bag of soot over his back.  The bleak wintry scene comprises snow or sleet (represented by black diagonal lines and a white landscape) coming from a band of dark clouds just beneath the text. The landscape seems dirty with smoke and/or soot.  The wintry landscape is a bleak white, and diagonal black lines indicate falling (and sooty?) snow.
The scene is a wintry city street. In the background to the left and the foreground right are buildings (perhaps built of bricks) with pitched roofs--with a window in the former and a door (probably made of wood) in the latter.
               The chimney sweeper of the text, a "little black thing among the snow" (line 1), walks down a city street bordered by buildings. He wears dark clothes or is covered with soot, the "clothes of death" (line 7), and perhaps wears a cap or hood on his head. He carries a pack of soot on his back, which he holds with his raised left arm; his right arm is at his side. The left side of his face is also dark with soot. The wintry landscape is a bleak white, and diagonal black lines indicate falling (and sooty?) snow.
        Vine-like extensions on the "T" of "THE" in the title, "y" of "Chimney," and the "S" and "p" of "Sweeper" ornament the title area, while similar vegetative decoration--with the additional suggestion of long leaves--fills some of the spaces in the right margin and reinforces the separation between stanzas 2 and 3. The black coloring of several of these vegetative motifs suggests the soot dominating the design below the text.

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http://dazzle.village.virginia.edu:8888/blake/Illuminated-Book/