'The Little Black Boy'

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since my article review refers to Blake’s “Little Black Boy” quite a bit, I figured I should do one of my posts on the poem itself. As you can see, the poem was written as well as illustrated by Blake, and the art that goes along with the poem really gives the poem the most powerful effect. The weeping willow is the graphic that stands out the most to me, especially since in real life weeping willows are my favorite trees. Upon doing a little research, I learned that weeping willows actually symbolize dreams and hope, which fits the poem perfectly. In the poem, a mother is comforting her son and telling him that God is there and that the sun brings them both good things. In the first picture, the little boy appears to be black, while in the second there is no mistaking that his skin is pale. “And these black bodies and this sunburnt face, Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.” In this quote, she is speaking of how having black skin holds then back, “clouding” them from the rest of the world. The irony within the poem is that Blake was very much against slavery, and wanted blacks to be able to be free. The way that God is spoken of, (“And gives His light, and gives His heat away”) makes me think that Blake is trying to get through to the reader that God loves us no matter what the color of our skin is, and His love is unconditional, while at the same time the slaves have a closer connection to God. When I read this poem, I felt like it’s just packed full of hope and Blake wants the reader to really understand the perspective it’s coming from after a thorough read. I also felt like this poem is one of the strongest pieces of evidence I have read of his work that really shows us his abolitionist opinion. My favorite part of the poem is when Blake says “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”, because the message he is trying to convey is how much closer slaves became to God because of their suffering, and he was doing all he could to help their suffering (due to slavery) end.