Week 7
The opening stanza of Blake's poem The Little Black Boy immediately sets the scene and tells us what life is going to be like for this young 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.
The young boy knows that the colour of his skin is different to other boys...as if he was denied the light which other boys - the white boys - received. This idea seems to suggest that the white boys are somehow better than him.
However, this is somewhat combated by the idea that while the boy seems different on the outside, he is the same as any other boy on the inside - "my soul is white/ White as an angel is the English child".
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.
In this stanza, we see that the mother is preparing this young boy for the potentially hard road which lies in front of him.
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 noon day.
In this third stanza, Blake uses the sun as a metaphor for God, (this religious metaphor continues through the poem).
Also the reference to the sun is 'rising' alludes to the idea that this is a time of change.
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 sun-burnt face
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.
In this fourth stanza, Blake implies that people who have black skin are more connected to God, as well as with love, light and ultimately the sun. It can also be considered that these people are closer to God as a result of the suffering they have endured - it is suggested that suffering comes from the exposure to the sun's rays, described by "...this sun-burnt face".
Suffering is a way of deepening our connection.
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 & care,
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice.
Thus did my mother day 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:
The fifth stanza pokes at the idea that humanity is being united as one. It says "the cloud will vanish"... the cloud is symbolic of what separates people on an earthly level. When this cloud has been lifted, and when they are on a higher level, they will not see the difference in the colours of their skin.
This idea of a cloud being lifted, a barrier being removed, is continued in the sixth stanza in the lines "When I from black and he from white cloud free/ And round the tent of God like lambs we joy".
In both the fifth and sixth stanzas, it is implied that in order for this cloud to be lifted, and to ultimately reach this higher level, the physical life must have been passed... thus only way for all to united is to be united with God.
Therefore the notion of 'the higher level' is referring to the idea of heaven.
Ill shade him from the heat till he can bear,
To lean in joy upon our fathers knee.
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him and he will then love me.
This final stanza suggests that while at the beginning of the poem it seems as though it is the little black boy who has a lot to learn, in fact he is the more tolerant of the two, and he has the most inner strength.
It is the little black boy who shades the little white boy from the rays of the sun - the black boy deals with the suffering for the white boy.
Also, it suggests that the little black boy will stand by the little white boy until the little white boy has learned that there is no difference in the two, apart from skin colour....
Overall this poem was very controversial because at the time it was published (1788-89) slavery was still and the campaign to abolish the slavery trade was still extremely young.
The slave trade was not outlawed in Britain until 1807, and slavery was not abolished until 1833.
