Blake on Black
It is eighteenth century North America, where the slave is freed yet still imprisoned in his skin as an inferior human; seen as barbaric and immoral because he is perceived as a godless man and given the solution of redemption through conversion to a western faith, that will only result in him being acknowledged as a reasonably learned child in his youth and twilight years.
Blake, along with other poets of the century, wrote on their disapproval of the treatment of the African community and commented on the issues that were attached to the topic such as the use of religion as an excuse to mistreat blacks, the human rights of Africans and the observation of their emancipation. The poem “The Little Black Boy” comments on these issues, this paper will assess the ways in which the poet represents the relationships that the Black Boy depicts he has with his mother, the English Boy and the creator. It will also analyse the use of pronouns in the poem and the images related to colour and nature.
The south of all things known to western man in the time before discoverers ventured further than others had before them, was imagined as being a frightful place where life was punished with godly wrath for simply existing. Although many sailors and adventurous who had travelled Africa by land had crossed paths and traded with Africans from the eleventh century, it would be another three centuries before European powers took it upon themselves to reach further into Africa and declare her inhabitants inferior and in need of direction and religion. Slavery is a consequence of this, although it should be noted that slavery existed within Africa long before Europeans breached the shores of the continent. Millions of people were taken and sold, thousands died on route to their destinations and just as many died of mistreatment; all this was seen as necessary evil by the powers that be, to fuel progress and capitalist driven colonialism. It is on the cusp of industrial revolution that the world changed its perceptions of freedom and equality, in that, established governments of the world defined the perimeters of humanity and its rights and responsibilities. The English Bill of Rights (1689), The American declaration of Independence (1776) and the precursor to the French constitution, The Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen, were all drafted in an era where ideals and ethics were merged with the economic arena to maintain order and productivity, thus making slavery unnecessary.[1] It is with this information in mind and the date on which this poem was penned (1789), that the analysis of this poem will be based upon.
The Black Boy introduces his train of thought with the memory of his mother and his birth,” My mother bore me in the southern wild.” (Line 1), to establish the importance of the mother as the bearer of the Lords child and nurturer of this child and as his origins along with the “southern wild”. In stanza two the mother is depicted as teacher, source of spirituality and nurturer, as this stanza introduces the wisdom she imparts onto her son. The importance of the religious theme of this stanza underlines the idea that African culture’s had their own religion before being introduced to Christianity because Blake introduces the image of a tree – a symbol of nature and all its wonder – which would have served as a part of a belief system. The joining of mother and natural elements validates the idea that the mother both represents the origins of the Black Boy, and a personification of the “southern wild”, the land from which the boy is from. The tenderness of the mother is a universal theme, regardless of race or creed, the poet uses this as a tool to humanise the then villainised and misrepresented black people.
The English boy, even before being mentioned, is deemed as superior in his hue by birth, “And I am black, but oh my soul is white! White as an Angel is the English Child, but I am black as if bereaved of light.” ( 2-4). This has religious undertones with reference to Christianity as the English Boy is compared to an angel and the Black Boy as an opposite of this, an idea that was imprinted in the minds of slaves to re-enforce their oppression by devaluing their very existence. Through this and the third stanza, Blake attempts to contrast the religion of the west and the spirituality that the Boy is taught by his mother; where one is prejudice the other sees no race as illustrated by the third, fourth and fifth stanzas “ Look on the rising sun: There god does live, and gives his light, and gives his heat...and round my golden tent like lambs rejoice.” (9-20). The relationship between the English and Black Boys as depicted by the latter starts as an unequal one, however, as the poem progresses it is the absence of any kind of classification or value given to appearance in his mothers description of God and his intentions that assist the boy to conclude that he and the other child are equal, but the child proclaimed as angelic does not realise this whereas he does.
The creator is established as a mythical entity far removed from the world and its inhabitants, both as father and creator he is assigned ultimate authority over the argument of equality as illustrated by stanzas three to six. The creator in this poem embodies spirituality and the relationship as depicted by the boy is one of an omnipresent father and his child, who – when reached – will share his unconditional love for all his children with them all, so as to teach them the same love.
The poem has approximately thirty-seven pronouns, sixteen of which refer to the speaker in first person, two are of the Creator in first person, six to the English Boy, four refer to both the boys collectively, three to the Creator , two refer to the mother and two refer to both the mother and Black Boy collectively. This gives us the idea that the perceptions of the speaker are of the greatest importance because although his mother voices the Creator – which undoubtedly shapes the rest of the poem – she need only have one pronoun as it is through the boy that she is represented as he re-iterates her sentiments. There are three voices present in this poem; the mother, child and Creator, the English Boy is represented as part of a figurative conversation as validated by stanza five “...and thus I say to little English Boy...”, these are the most important as they lead us through the memory of the attainment of this knowledge and its origin ( his mother), the importance bestowed upon her as she speaks as the Creator in the first person and finally the conclusion that all are equal in the eyes of the creator. This poem uses pronouns and personal pronouns to give the argument a progressive structure where the reader is lead from one idea, given a contrary story then ending on another idea.
In the eighteenth century everything could be categorised as either black or white; bad or good, this is made clear by the first stanza “And I am black, but oh my soul is white...” this is a comment on the prejudices of the time that all black people were heathens without God and morals, the boy is proclaiming his goodness in a way that could be understood in the appropriate era. The lines “My mother taught me...pointed to the east, and began to say...” (5-8), “Look on the rising sun...joy in the noon day.” (9-12), “And we are put on earth...like lambs rejoice.”(13-16), illustrate the themes of the poem in that, the mother and child seated under the majestic tree which offers shelter as they look on the sun – source of life – where they believe the Creator lives, gives the sense of the connection between nature and spirituality in the world of the Little Black Boy, the themes being race, equality and communion in spirituality and spirituality as a whole.
In conclusion, Blake comments on the redundancy of race in this life and the role that religion plays in both the perpetuation and abolishment of racial inequalities. His narrative style gives the poem a progressive feel, which leads to conclusion different to where the poem begins, by using characters to relate and interact with the speaker. He uses natural imagery to illustrate and validate the spirituality of Africans by using symbolic devices.
Word Count: 1485
Bibliography
ê Crofton, I .et al (editors).1990. The Guinness Encyclopaedia. 2nd Edition. Guinness Publishing, Great Britain, Middlesex.1995
ê Blake, William. “The Little Black Boy” (1789). Eng 2B21 – Romantic Poetry, Part 1, Selected Poems. Ed. Jane Starfield, 2012, p. 3.
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.
My mother taught me underneath a tree, 5
And sitting down before the heat of day
She took me on her lap and kissèd me,
And pointed to the east, began to say:
“Look on the rising sun: there God does live,
And gives his light, and gives his heat away, 10
And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
Comfort in morning, joy in the noon day.
“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 15
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.
“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,’” 20
Thus did my mother say, and kissèd 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.”’
I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear 25
To lean in joy upon our Father's knee;
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him, and he will then love me.
[1] Crofton, I .et al (editors).1990. The Guinness Encyclopaedia. 2nd Edition. Guinness Publishing, Great Britain, Middlesex.1995
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