Artists have different ways of expressing their views about various issues affecting society. Like many other artworks such as painting, movies, and songs, the poem was a significant means of communicating thoughts and about political, social and cultural matters in the society. The focus of this article is a poem by William Blake called The Little Black Boy. William Blake was a staunch romantic poet. Romantics were types of arts where the expression of emotion was a significant trait. The Romanticism emphasized imagination, the appearance of the culture and behavior in the society, and religious response to nature. William Bake was a British poet, an engraver and Painter ( Canuel, 2016). Most of his work had the traits of Romanticism. Other than different styles and artistic devices that most of his poems explored, William Blake used most of his poetry to emphasize some of the culture and issues that were taking place in the society by that time. The Black Little Boy, other than many traits of Romanticism expressed in it, is an expression of the state of slavery during this time in the United Kingdom.
The Black Little Boy belongs to a group of romantic arts. Romantic arts build on the basis of emotional and imaginative spontaneity. William Bake clearly expresses these two traits in this Poem. First, the relationship between the mother and the son is emotional. As the kid describe the kind treatment and teaching he gets from the mother. Their relationship is an expression of love between the two parties. As the kid describes, "she took me on her lap and kissed me.” In this case, there is a clear expression of the mother love. Other than that, there is an expression of love emotion that is expected from the human being by their supreme being. People need to show love to others despite their color. This is the same love the child in the poem tries to explain to a white friend ( Canuel, 2016). The kid states that;“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." In this case, the kid has already realized his identity as black and the fact that being a black person among the white may generate hatred due to the skin color. His plea, in this case, is love despite the skin color. Further, the same need to manifest between people and their creature.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The creative aspect of this poem is the expression of the relation between human beings, their creator, and nature. The mother tries to explain the relationship between human being, their God and nature. The mother needs the kid to imagine this relation and try to apply the same in his daily life. The concern, in this case, is the love between God, human species and nature. When the kid tries to imagine and apply the same love to his friend, he realizes that in case such love can exist despite their color, the result is significant. Also, romantics expressed the relationship between people and nature. This is indicated in this poem with expressions such as the rising sun the clouds and the earth ( Clemens, 2017). Lastly, the poetry also inclined towards the religion. This was a critical trait among the romanticism artists. Religion in this poem is mostly expressed through symbolism and imagery. For instance, the expression such as Black body and the sunburnt face references to Old Testament poem, the Song of Songs. In the Song of Songs, the bride whose face is black and sunburnt is considered beautiful (Song of Songs 1:6). The word lamp used in this poem is an expression of innocent and humility that were associated with the Jesus Christ. Jesus in the book of Peter is portrayed as a lamp. He is also called the Lamb of God in the book of John (John 1:29).
The poem The Little Black Boy is a depiction of racial discrimination due to slavery as a social issue that was prominent during this time in the United Kingdom. Slavery was widespread in Europe and the slaves in these countries were mostly Africans. Africans slaved for an extended period, and they were treated not as human being, but as animals with limited rights. During this time, the children who were born of slaves were automatically slaves of the white. As a slave, the kids and their parents had little chance of enjoying freedom. They were segregated both in schools and public places ( Mellor, 2015). No love existed between the white and the Black. The racial discrimination as a result of slavery is what the Kid tries to address in this poem by trying to engage the white friend by claiming that when love exists between them, they can stay together despite their skin color.
In summary, the Poem the Little Black Boy is a romantic poem due to many elements of romanticism that are used by the poet. Romanticism had significant features such as religion, nature, imagination and emotions, all which are expressed in this poem. Other than that, the poem focuses on racial discrimination due to slavery that existed in the United Kingdom during this time.
References
Canuel, M. (2016). The shadow of death: literature, romanticism, and the subject of punishment . Princeton University Press.
Clemens, J. (2017). The Romanticism of Contemporary Theory: Institution, Aesthetics, Nihilism . Routledge.
Dolan, E. A. (2016). Seeing suffering in women's literature of the Romantic era . Routledge.
Mellor, A. K. (2015). Blake, Gender and Imperial Ideology: A Response. Blake, Politics, and History , 350-3.
