Children in Blake’s Poetry Essay - 1167 Words

Children in Blake’s Poetry The use of children is a prominent theme in a number of William Blake’s poems. It is apparent in reading such poems as, â€Å"The Lamb,† â€Å"The Little Black Boy,† and â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper,† that Blake sees the world through the eyes of a child and embraces the innocence of the young. Blake’s poem â€Å"The Lamb,† from Songs of Innocence really illustrates the innocence and purity of a young child. The persona in the poem is of a young child. The child questions the lamb as to where he came from and asks, â€Å"Little Lamb who made thee? / Dost thou know who made thee?† (9,10) The child is expecting the Lamb to answer him but it is obvious to the reader that the Lamb can’t talk. When the child receives no†¦show more content†¦He thinks that white children are like angles and black children are black because they are deprived of the light. The mother sits the boy down under a tree and says to him: 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 Is but a cloud, like a shady grove. (12,15) The mother is trying to console her son here by telling him that he is going to face a difficult life but once he makes it thorough all the struggles, and has learned to bear the heat from the â€Å"beams of love,† God will take him into heaven. The little black boy envisions the day that he and the white boy will be brought to heaven. He says, â€Å"I’ll shade him from the heat til he can bear/ To lean in joy upon our father’s knee.† (25,26) Here the little black boy is saying that he will protect the white boy, and then they will both go to heaven. â€Å"And then I’ll stand and stroke his silver hair, /And be like him, and he will then love me.† (27,28) The little boy is saying that once he is in heaven he will no longer be been by the color of his skin. However, he thinks that he won’t be loved until he is like someone else. Another poem of Blake’s that shows the innocence of children is â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper† from Songs Of Innocence. The persona in this poem is one of a young chimneysweeper. The chimneysweeper who is speaking is one whoShow MoreRelatedSociological Criticism of William Blake’s Poetry Essay1506 Words   |  7 Pagesthe exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. Blake’s ideology and preference towards an equalitarian society quite closely mirror the theories of Karl Marx. Analyzing Blake’s poetry from a Marxist perspective paints a clearer picture of the motives behind Blake’s anger towards social inequality. 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