Children in Blake’s Poetry

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, “The Lamb,” “The Little Black Boy,” and “The Chimney Sweeper,” that Blake sees the world through the eyes of a child and embraces the innocence of the young.

Blake’s poem “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, “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 answer, he decides that he’ll tell the lamb where he came from. He says, “Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee!” (12). The child says: He is called by thy name for he calls himself a Lamb;

He is meek & mild,

He became a little child;

I a child & thou a lamb,

We are called by his name. (13,18)

The child really shows that his innocence here. The Lamb is being referred to as Jesus, the Lamb of God. The child is saying that that Lamb, Jesus and the child are all the same. What the boy does not understand, because he is a child and so innocent, is that the Lamb will be sacrificed, and the child will die, just like Jesus did when He was crucified.

“The Little Black Boy” from Songs of Innocence is another poem that illustrates the innocence of children. The poem is written from the persona of a little black boy who has been told that being white is better then being black. The little boy says:

And I am black, but O! my soul is white;

White as an angel is the English child;

But I am b...

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...s parents have gone to church to pray. The child blames his parents as well as society for his present position in life and says:

“And because I am happy, & dance & sing,

They think they have done me no injury,

And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King,

Who make up a heaven of our misery.” (9,12)

Unlike “The Chimney Sweeper” from Songs of Innocence, the young boy in this poem realizes that he is going to die and that this is wrong. He blames God, his parents and society for letting this happened to him. Blake is still seeing the world through the eyes of a child in this poem, however, he is looking at it from a more mature or experienced point of view.

Many of William Blake’s poems contain images of children and depict children as innocent and naïve. Blake sees the world through the eyes of a child and he shows this through his poetry.