Blake describes the racial segregation found not only between people within

his society, but in children as well. He specifically focuses on two young boys. The
use of ‘black’ and ‘white’ directly links to the physical differences between the two
boys, and the fact that these colours are considered polar opposites perhaps suggest or
emphasises how different the two boys’ childhoods were. It suggests that they are not
only different in appearance but in how they live their life and perceive things. For
example, we can clearly see that the black boy makes all the positive gestures; he is
genuinely good and seeks to protect the white boy, ‘I’ll shade him from the heat’.
The black boy seems to be spiritually superior in comparison with the white
boy; however, in terms of society it appears that the black boy is in servitude. Blake
may be hinting towards slavery. Traditionally, ‘white’ was associated with good
whereas ‘black’ was associated with evil – this was prevalent during Blake’s society,
a time when the slave trade had yet to be abolished. It seems that the black boy has
had a difficult and hard life, and it is only because of his mother’s consolation that he
sees things in a more positive light. Even though it seems he does not have his father,
he still has his mother, which suggests that he did not have an entirely lonely
childhood. His mother ‘taught [him] underneath a tree’ showing she upholds a
responsibility towards her son. He receives warmth and love from his mother, yet in
the last line of the last stanza, ‘he will then love me’ suggest that he wants a
companion or friend that is more along his own age. Children are known to be
innocent, and the fact that society’s prejudice prevents these different raced children
from interacting is terrible and almost unfair to them. Only upon death it seems, that
these two children can be able to find common ground or common humanity, which is
denied by the slave system.

♦ The poem has a real political intent – conventional attitudes determined by the
fact that we were a colonial society: domination, greed done under civilised,
educated men.
♦ Slavery was the foundation in which rich society existed on. That and
industrialisation.
♦ Blake questioning the financial structure that gave that extra quality to the
industrial sector
♦ 1790 –a huge debate over slavery, at first the little back boy seems to accept
the superiority of the white boy. But the last line provides us a great deal to
think about if the black boy has rights, in the scheme of things. There is even
the implications that the black boy has better chance or is more worthy of
being in the presence of god
♦ There is a lot of irony here, questioning contemporary people, this poem may
have provoked anger from some people

♦ Form of the poem: is unusual since usually the lines are short, direct, and
cynical BUT this poem is different as it is much longer lines and has quite a
regular rhythm – iambic pentameter. It is quite a heightened line.
♦ The form here projects a strong message he chooses to give this poem
significance.
♦ Poignant and moving poem, argument of politics furthered by church – instead
of siding with people’s beliefs and rights, hypocrisy in regard to the care of the
church not treating people as human beings – instead it seemed they treated
society according to the type of person you were according to social class
♦ Words that carry arguments: In the end, Blake talks about the relationship
between whites and blacks.
♦ VOICE: Child’s voice us used an create a bigger impact on the significance of
the poem. Using a child’s voice was an important aspect of the Romantics but
Blake was talented in the way he would capture and use the child’s voice

♦ Focused on mother, retrospective as the little black boy reminiscences of his

mother’s love and her teachings, then in the last two stanzas, we are back with
the boy speaking.
♦ Black and white – they co-exist, they are contraries. The poem is full of
double meanings as they can be interpreted in two different ways. The love of
the Christian teachings – bad body, good soul – they have separated these two
entities. Doubling here seems appropriate due to the contraries that are
separated in society.
♦ Doubling in the sense of two voices – hearing the individual child speak for
different set of race, in stanza one it portrays a very conventional symbolism –
black = evil, white = pure. He makes us think very hard of this false separation
on ethnicity.
♦ Look at the portrait of education: Rousseau  Blake agreed with him all
about liberalisation and encouraging children to learn through creativity. Other
poems shows strict, harsh and very repressed teaching methods – they had that
expectation of children being naughty.
♦ Interesting theory about the Little Black Boy is that he is not conventional
educations yet he has a good insight. The mother could be ameliorating the
boy’s feelings – she does not condemn.
♦ There is lots to say about natural education and differs in different ethnic
groups with different backgrounds