The irony in the last stanza of the poem is:
“Tom is happy despite appalling working conditions, and he is not set free”.
<u>Explanation:</u>
The poem “The Chimney Cleaner”, by William Blake, is a poem that speaks of the dire conditions in which innocent children are made to clean the chimneys of huge and big houses.
In the poem, the last stanza tells about how Tom awakes from a pleasant dream and gets to work without feeling gloom or unhappy about the nature of the work. He rather is feeling happy and calm, even though he has not been set free from the working conditions.
This is the irony that reflects in the stanza; the innocent child’s happiness due to his pleasant dream but the crude reality that he yet lives in.
