Persona of a Child in William Blakes 'The Little Black Boy'

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Literary Analysis
William Blake was a man who spoke his mind. He used his writing to speak what he thought and how he felt about certain things. The poem The Little Black Boy is among several poems that he published in a collection called Songs of Innocence and Experience. Songs of Innocence and Experience was published in 1789, and in all of the poems, Blake criticizes the society of his time. He spares no one in this collection including wealthy socialites, the institution of slavery, and even church leaders. Blake does not hold back in this collection. In a poem like The Little Black Boy, he attacks the institution of slavery and the notion that white people are superior to black people. The persona of the poem is a little black boy who appears to be very aware of his color and its implication from a young age. However, in spite of everything, the little black boy talks of how his mother loved and cared for him. His mother taught him about God and explained to him why his skin is different from white people’s skin. As it nears the end, the little black boy seeks to put to use the knowledge given to him by his mother. Borrowing a leaf of love from his mother, he seeks to spread the same to a little English boy albeit acknowledging that the little English boy was cloud-free. This analysis, however, goes deeper and seeks to determine the themes, tone, imagery, and symbolism.
One of the themes in the poem is that of equality. At the time Blake was writing The Little Black Boy, slavery was allowed, and black people were considered inferior to their white counterparts. However, in the poem, Blake mentions one God from whom everything on earth appears to receive comfort and joy. “And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive Comfort in morning joy in the noonday.” Here, he does not separate the black people from white people noting that God does consider all humans equal.
The second theme evident in the poem is that of guardianship. This is depicted through the mother of the little black boy, God towards everyone, and the little black boy towards the little English boy. With regards to his mother, the lit...