The Little Black Boy Essay Revised

“The Little Black Boy”

My mother bore me in the southern wild,

And I am black, but O! my soul is white;

White as an angel is the English child,

But I am black, as if bereav'd of light.

My mother taught me underneath a tree,

And sitting down before the heat of day,

She took me on her lap and kissed me,

And pointing to the east, began to say:

"Look on the rising sun: there God does live,

And gives his light, and gives his heat away;

And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive

Comfort in morning, joy in the noonday.

And we are put on earth a little space,

That we may learn to bear the beams of love;

And these black bodies and this sunburnt face

Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.

For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear,

The cloud will vanish; we shall hear his voice,

Saying: 'Come out from the grove, my love and care,

And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice.' "

Thus did my mother say, and kissed me;

And thus I say to little English boy,

When I from black and he from white cloud free,

And round the tent of God like lambs we joy,

I'll shade him from the heat, till he can bear

To lean in joy upon our father's knee;

And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,

And be like him, and he will then love me.

My mother bore me in the southern wild,

And I am black, but O! my soul is white;

White as an angel is the English child,

But I am black, as if bereav'd of light.

My mother taught me underneath a tree,

And sitting down before the heat of day,

She took me on her lap and kissed me,

And pointing to the east, began to say:

"Look on the rising sun: there God does live,

And gives his light, and gives his heat away;

And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive

Comfort in morning, joy in the noonday.

And we are put on earth a little space,

That we may learn to bear the beams of love;

And these black bodies and this sunburnt face

Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.

For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear,

The cloud will vanish; we shall hear his voice,

Saying: 'Come out from the grove, my love and care,

And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice.' "

Thus did my mother say, and kissed me;

And thus I say to little English boy,

When I from black and he from white cloud free,

And round the tent of God like lambs we joy,

I'll shade him from the heat, till he can bear

To lean in joy upon our father's knee;

And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,

And be like him, and he will then love me.

My mother bore me in the southern wild,

And I am black, but O! my soul is white;

White as an angel is the English child,

But I am black, as if bereav'd of light.

My mother taught me underneath a tree,

And sitting down before the heat of day,

She took me on her lap and kissed me,

And pointing to the east, began to say:

"Look on the rising sun: there God does live,

And gives his light, and gives his heat away;

And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive

Comfort in morning, joy in the noonday.

And we are put on earth a little space,

That we may learn to bear the beams of love;

And these black bodies and this sunburnt face

Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.

For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear,

The cloud will vanish; we shall hear his voice,

Saying: 'Come out from the grove, my love and care,

And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice.' "

Thus did my mother say, and kissed me;

And thus I say to little English boy,

When I from black and he from white cloud free,

And round the tent of God like lambs we joy,

I'll shade him from the heat, till he can bear

To lean in joy upon our father's knee;

And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,

And be like him, and he will then love me.

The literary theory that this poem applies to is Marxist Criticism. “Marxist literary criticism is a loose term describing literary criticism based on socialist and dialectic theories. Marxist criticism views literary works as reflections of the social institutions from which they originate. According to Marxists, even literature itself is a social institution and has a specific ideological function, based on the background and ideology of the author.” (Wikipedia)   Who does its benefit of the work or effort is accepted/successful/believed, etc? This work benefits anyone who reads it.  “In the past the Blake holds a fast desire of acceptance by the white English child.” (Blake) In today’s society there is no longer the want of desire of acceptance between blacks and whites. Most of the time everyone seems to get along and they don’t try to compete with one another. The image that I chose depicts the poem. It shows a mother speaking with her children, explaining why the world is the way it is. I also found a song that relates to this work, it’s a religious but very inspirational song that reflect the little black boy,  Watch Video

William Blake’s poem The Little Black Boy has been long recognized as a work of “astonishing complexity,” in a dualistic perception of the world. This poem tells the story of how the little black boy came to know his own identity and to learn about God through his mother’s teachings. I believe that the poem state he was born in the “southern wild” which is Africa. He states that even though his skin is black his soul is as white as an English child. He meets a white English boy that he wants to be like. “He talks about his mother teaching him about how God lives in the east, who gives light and life to all creations and comfort and joy to men.” (Blake)

 The black boy passes on his lesson to an English child, explaining that his white skin is likewise a cloud. He vows that when they are both free of their bodies and delighting in the presence of God, he will shade his white friend until him, too, learns to bear the heat of God’s love. Then, the black boy says, he will be like the English boy, and the English boy will love him.

 The black boy internalizes his mother’s lesson and applies it in his relations with the outer world; specifically, Blake shows us what happens when the boy applies it to his relationship with a white child. The results are ambivalent. The boy explains to his white friend that they are equals, but that neither will be truly free until they are released from the constraints of the physical world. He imagines himself shading his friend from the brightness of God’s love until he can become accustomed to it. Blake implies that the black boy is better prepared for heaven than the white boy, perhaps because of the greater burden of his dark skin has posed during earthly life. This is part of the consoling vision with which his mother has prepared him, which allows his suffering to become a source of pride rather than shame. But the boy’s outlook, and his deference to the white boy, may strike the reader as containing a naive blindness to the realities of oppression and racism, and a too-passive acceptance of suffering and injustice. We do not witness the response of the white boy; Blake’s focus in this poem is on the mental state of the black child. But the question remains of whether the child’s outlook is servile and self-demeaning, or exemplifies Christian charity. The poem itself implies that these might amount to the same thing.

            Overall I think this is an excellent poem by William Blake, it shows you different point of views from all walks of life; the past and the present. I think that everyone can learn a valuable lesson from this work. The song shows a religious view of how they believe the poem is portrayed. I would recommend anyone who loves to read to engage in this work.

Works Cited

Hofmeister,L.Poetry analysis: The Little Black Boy. By William Blake.16May2012.Retrieved from: L Hofmeister

Adams, Hazard . William Blake: A Reading of the Shorter Poems . Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1963

Wikipedia