This poem by William Blake explores themes of racial equality through the perspective of a black boy. The boy describes how his mother, an allegory for Africa, taught him about God and their souls being white despite their physical differences of black skin. The boy hopes that once the white English child is ready, they can both be free from racial "clouds" and rejoice together as lambs in God's presence, with the black boy shading and caring for the white boy as his mother did for him.

1. ‘ THE LITTLE BLACK BOY’ By William Blake .

3. This poem was published in ‘ Songs of Innocence and Experience’ in 1789, during a time when slavery was still legal and the campaign for the abolition of it was just beginning. The poem…

5. My mother taught me underneath a tree And sitting down before the heat of day, She took me on her lap and kissed me, And pointing to the east began to say.

7. 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, and like a shady grove.