Emily Winkler

A. Frank Wake
English 322-01
14 March 2014
Exposing The Truths of Humanity
What seems to be the logic and message expressed in The Little
Black Boy and why would Blake be troubled by it? How might the
poems The Divine Image, The Human Abstract, and A Divine
Image from Songs of Innocence and Experience explore similar logic
and thereby help us to interpret Blakes larger message in LLB?
In William Blakes, The Little Black Boy, there is a specific
objective that brings to surface a lack of unity in humanity; that
although we are all humans we are not equal. This poem is focused on
a young black boy that is coming to realize that his skin color makes
him different, and therefore he is not an equal, which of course means
he is not the same quality of human. After talking to his mother and
being reassured that his black skin is but a cloud, and like a shady
grove (121), he knows that one day the cloud will vanish and he will
be nothing but an uncolored soul ascending to Gods kingdom. He will
finally be of the same worth. Blake is troubled by this message that
essentially, we carry around this cloud of our race until we go to
heaven because he was an activist in human equality. He wrote this
during The Slavery Abolition Act with a purpose of showing the

innocence of this small boy that cannot understand why he is not good
enough. Blake paints a picture of the cruelty in humanity, a cruelty that
forces the little boy to come to terms with his blackness. Blake
reminds us of a culture where black and white is the difference
between good and bad.
The partially painted picture that Blake gives us in The Little
Black Boy becomes even more visible throughout the rest of Songs of
Innocence and Experience starting with The Divine Image. This poem
gives human qualities to Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love. The poem
states, For Mercy has a human heart/Pity, a human face/ And Love,
the human form of divine/And Peace, the human dress(122). These
are examples of the human characteristics that these words hold. They
bring the reader to a realization that these qualities find embodiment
in humans, we give them a face. These qualities here show sympathy
for human existence, but the young boy in the Little Black Boy has
never been on the receiving end of these human qualities except for
example, Pity having a human face. This could be related back to
the young black boy being looked upon as pitiful by a white person.
This young boy will only come to know Love when he reaches
heaven, which is a reason why Blake or anyone else reading the poem
would be troubled.
The next piece that fits Blakes puzzle would be The Human
Abstract, which sheds an honest light on the human experience and

gives reason to the lack of compassion this young boy has been given.
Blake challenges, Pity would be no more/ If we did not make
somebody poor/And Mercy no more could be/ If we were as happy as
we (133). This poem is essentially stating that this boy is feeling pain
because someone else is feeling happiness. He would never know
happiness if he did not have this experience. Blake is saying that in
order for status quo to survive, and in order for there to be
functionality in life, some people need to suffer. These people suffer for
others happiness. This is only possible because of human life. We
become very aware in this poem that cruelty is planted in the human
mind. Blake can essentially challenge us to think about whom our
happiness is hurting.
In following, A Divine Image in Blakes, Songs of Experience
ties up the message in The Little Black Boy because unlike the
positivity of the qualities in The Divine Image, the qualities in A
Divine Image show realistically what the young boy has been exposed
to growing up. Cruelty has a Human Heart/And Jealousy a Human
Face/Terror, the Human Form Divine/And Secrecy, the Human Dress
(135). Blake is giving us the image of the source of human suffering,
which is humans themselves. The reason the black boy cannot self-love
and has been made aware of his racial cloud is because of humanity.
Humans are afraid of what they do not understand; what is different.
This boy is different and that makes him less human.

The reason all of these poems by Blake are relevant is because

they all have a common thread: human suffering. Each one of these
poems can be read with a goal of uniting humanity, which is very
relevant in todays society. Blakes poems could be important reflection
tools for the individuals in war and/or poverty stricken countries. The
suffering of this world is a product of man and just like the young black
boy in The Little Black Boy, other young children are left feeling
without a sense of acceptance and love. These poems expose the evils
of human nature and the realities for the individuals on the receiving
end.