The Little Black Boy
In the 17th and 18th
centuries, slavery is still legal. It is an age when the black people were
treated as sub humans. It is an epoch of race discrimination. William Blake, a
humanitarian poet, writes about justice and equality between people, against
all the expectations of his era. In his poem “the Little Black Boy”, we, as
readers, can notice two major themes that enhance his ideas such as
humanitarianism and love.
First of all, William Blake strongly believes
that all human beings deserve respect and dignity. In addition, all slavery,
discrimination, tribalism, and ethnic nationalism should be vanished. From the
beginning of his poem, the title is about a black boy, and the persona is by
him. This demonstrates that Blake wants to give the black people their lost
voices at that era. He gives a space to the black boy to speak out, and defend
himself saying, “I am black, but O, my soul is white”. Both of the two boys,
though their different skin colors, have pure souls as the black boy said, “white
as an angle is the English child”.
Moreover, in the last stanza, we can feel the equality between both boys.
The color is but a cloud that will vanish since they will be judged to their
souls not bodies. There, in the hereafter, the black boy can speak with the
English boy which he could not do it in reality. There, in the other life, will
be no barriers between them as he said, “I will stand and stroke his hair, and
be like him, and he will them love me”. This imaginative scene supports the
idea of giving him a voice to speak, and making him feel the equality with the
other boy.
Secondly, Blake focused of the theme of divine
love through two kinds of love. The first kind is the love of the mother to her
child, the little black boy. The poem begins with the words, “my mother”
indicating the only refuge in the world to anyone to find protection, peace,
and tenderness. The mother wants her child to believe that the black and the
white people are equal. She convinced him of her ideas through her love. For
example, she took her son in her lap and kissed him twice as the boy said, “she
took me in her lap and kissed me”. Such
emotionally actions let the black boy feel the support, peace, love and care,
and make him accept all what she is saying. The second kind is the spiritual
love of God. It is the divine love that will vanish all the suffering of race
differentiation or anything else in the world. Thus, all earthly injustice such
as slavery and discrimination will be nothing to the black boy since he feels
this kind of love. He is even proud of his color because it is a reason for him
to be closer to God since he receive God`s “beams of love”. He feels it now and
will feel it more on the day of judgment when God say, “ come out from grove,
my love and care” At that moment, all humanity will be the same regardless of their
colors.
Indeed, William Blake is a pre-romantic,
anti-slavery and a humanitarian poet. In his poem “the Little Black Boy”, he
supported the idea of better humanity by treating them equally with a great
love. Therefore, all barriers according
to color skin, religion, or the place of birth will vanish among people. Thus, such ideas will reduce the suffering in
this world leading to a better life.
Written by:
Sahar Yassin
Elshobaki
3 Comments
Here is Israa Salman`s reflection,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediafire.com/view/8j7a6olj82tvu99/the_little_black_boy.docx
Thanks Israa.
The Little Black Boy
ReplyDelete"The Little Black Boy" is a poem that's written by the most noted romantic poet, William Blake, a humanitarian who believed in equality for all people, whatever color, race or religion they have. This poem is considered as one of the "Songs of Innocence" in which the speaker, a little black boy, desires the acceptance and resemblance of the white child. Also, the mother of the child tries to teach her black kid and prepare him for the afterlife. Blake uses very simple language to show the readers very simple themes that they need to live by. The poem is very rich that it talks about two important themes that all humans must take in consideration, which are "Love" and "Humanitarianism".
Love is a universal theme that all must fill their hearts with to endure the hard life they live in. This black boy lives in a world that is full of inequality and slavery. And what can this little kid understand or do to keep alive, enduring the fact that is imposed upon him? –Love. They say "Love transcends everything.", and Blake is applying it in here. In the poem, there are two kinds of divine love that surround the black kid and make him forget about the discrimination, the injustice and the oppression. First, the divine love of his mother. The kid starts his song with the word "mother", which indicated the great effect of her upon him. He says, "She took me in her lap and kissed me," which also indicates the tenderness, love, and safety that his mother's heart provide him with. The pure lessons the mother gives about God's love is the second source of the divine love the kid receive. The Mother says that God is the sun, and the sun light is God's love; the more they are exposed to this light (love), the more they are sunburnt, the more they endure suffering, the more God loves them, and the more rewards they get. As a result, the kid is going to feel loved by God, thus forget about the whole misery he lives in. Therefore, the message is that all what people need is "to love" to help them ignore the problems they live with. They either need to seek the love of their mothers, or the love of their God, or both of them.
The second important theme is Humanitarianism. At Blake's age, black people were thought to be the source of evil. They were looked upon as inferior because of their different race. Paying attention to this fact, Blake strived to awake the people and solve this problem of colours and race in his society. The annoyed kid reveals form the beginning the conflict he lives within: "I am black, but O, my soul is white." Depressed and desperate he seems to be. On the other hand, the description of the white kid seems very racial, and that the black kid is very disturbed from this image, "white as an angel is the English child." What can a kid think of but this "I am black as bereaved of light." So, the black boy, who symbolizes his whole race, is trying to tell the white that appearance doesn't matter. No matter what the colour of your skin is, or the religion you have, all are humans, and it is the soul and the love of God that count after all. As the mother explains that the sunburnt face is but a result of God's love, she tells her kid that the white kid in not better than him. Having mentioned that, Blake supports the humanist aspect in people and remind them with justice and God's love.
To conclude, "The little Black Boy" is poem that criticizes the slavery in general and urges people to have faith in love. By making people aware of this conflict, that there is no difference in the shape of black or white people, that all are equal in front of God, Blake believed that a society can be changed. Love, in retrospect, will make them live happily and think of the rewards God is preparing in the afterlife.
Written by,
Taj Saleem
Thank you this is amazing, you help me very much to understand the poem
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