“The Little Black Boy” Introduction

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“The Little Black Boy” Summary

“The Little Black Boy” Themes

• 

  Racial Equality and Divine Love

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• 

  Life, Love, and the Afterlife

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Little Black Boy”

• Lines 1-4

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  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:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-28

  I'll 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.

  

  

  

  

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“The Little Black Boy” Symbols

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  Light

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  Lambs

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“The Little Black Boy” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Juxtaposition

  

  

  

  

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• Asyndeton

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Polysyndeton

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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“The Little Black Boy” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Bore
• Southern wild
• Bereav'd
• Noonday
• Bear
• Grove
• Rejoice
• Joy

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Little Black Boy”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“The Little Black Boy” Speaker

“The Little Black Boy” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “The Little Black Boy”

More “The Little Black Boy” Resources

• External Resources

  • Blake's Illustrations — See the poem in its original format, with Blake's own visual depictions (plus other illustrations/engravings).  

  • Blake's Radicalism — An excerpt from a documentary in which writer Iain Sinclair discusses Blake's radicalism. 

  • Blake's Visions — An excerpt from a documentary in which writer Iain Sinclair discusses Blake's religious visions. 

  • Blake and Stedman — Illustrations by Blake of a narrative written by John Stedman, a colonial soldier. 

  • The Transatlantic Slave Trade — A valuable resource about the history of slavery. 

• LitCharts on Other Poems by William Blake

  • A Dream

  • Ah! Sun-flower

  • A Poison Tree

  • Earth's Answer

  • Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)

  • Holy Thursday (Songs of Innocence)

  • Infant Joy

  • Infant Sorrow

  • Introduction (Songs of Innocence)

  • London

  • Nurse's Song (Songs of Experience)

  • Nurse's Song (Songs of Innocence)

  • The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)

  • The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Innocence)

  • The Clod and the Pebble

  • The Divine Image

  • The Ecchoing Green

  • The Fly

  • The Garden of Love

  • The Human Abstract

  • The Lamb

  • The Little Vagabond

  • The School Boy

  • The Sick Rose

  • The Tyger

  • To Autumn

  • To the Evening Star