The Little Black Boy - Ian Shackelford

The poem The Little Black Boy by William Blake is from a collection entitled Songs of Innocence. It has five beats per line and has a ryhme scheme of ABAB, and therefore it could actually be sung like a song rather than read like a poem, as the book title suggests. The narrorator of the poem is a child who speaks in a child-like tone, which reinforces the idea and feeling of innocence.
In the first stanza, the little black boy states that his "soul is white." It is as if he wants to believe that he is worthy even though his skin appears to have been "bereav'd of light," which might mean to some people that he has not received the light of God's approval. This poem was written in the 1780's which was a time of slavery, and so many whites would probably have agreed that this boy was not favored by God.
In the third stanza, the little boy's mother tells him to "look on the rising sun: there God does live." This line seems to equate God with the sun, making God something that lives within nature and within creation, rather than someone who makes moral judgements about people. In lines three and four of the third stanza, his mother tells him that all living things receive comfort and joy from God, implying that he in equal to everyone and everything else. She goes on to tell him that he has already received a lot of love from God in that his body has been browned by the sun's heat (God's gift). Also, his mom explains that bodies are really just clouds, and the true soul is on the inside.
In the last two stanzas, the little black boy concludes that when he and the white boy become "free" of their clouds, their souls will remain to worship God together, equally. Also, he will be able to shade the white boy's skin from the heat until the white boy's skin gradually adjusts to the bright sun. The white boy will then thank him and love him.
The tone of this poem is significant in that it sounds like a simple, little song with a simple, innocent, child-like understanding of race and prejudice. It also communicates the ideas held by William Blake, as he was a white man who was against slavery.