Comparing King Of Hearts And The Little Black Boy

In the poems King of Hearts by James Fross, Over the Middle Passage of Time by Millard Iowe, and The Little Black Boy by William Blake, the poets, like Marilyn Nelson’s Conductor and A Wreath for Emmett Till, all focus on the gravity and poignancy of slavery and racial discrimination. In order to emphasize the common theme—slavery, the poets apply in their poems several literary techniques, most notably contrast, allusion, and metaphor.
Although the contrasting images may vary in the aforementioned poems, the poets all effectively use contrast to develop their themes. In The Little Black Boy, for example, Blake starts the poem off by juxtaposing the colors black and white. The clear contrast between a black body and a white soul in the first

stanza draws attention to the hopeful beliefs of the black child, yet also suggests how inevitable and unchangeable his reality is. Then Blake contrasted the black narrator with “the English child”, who is depicted as “an angel” whereas the black boy was “as if bereaved of light.” According to these images, the reader can sense the sheer distinction between the social statuses of the two children solely because of their different races. The poet’s diction, for example his use of the word “bereaved”, also strongly indicates the black boy’s helpless yet unjust situation. Throughout this poem, Blake accentuates the contrast between the white “English boy” and the black narrator. However, near the end of the poem, Blake starts to focus more on the “joy” and “love” between the two children in spite of the difference in their skin color. Also, by likening the joyful children to “lambs”, Blake creates a peaceful scene despite the racial issues introduced at the beginning of the poem. The contrast between the merciless slavery and the tranquil peace between the two races evokes readers’ yearning for a joyful utopian society as described especially in the last three stanzas. In the poem Over the Middle Passage of Time, Millard Iowe juxtaposes the two images, “wet sweat” and “dried blood”, in order to suggest the cruelty of the slave trade between continents. The combination of wet and dry images vividly depicts a picture of the inhumane slave labor. In addition, Iowe’s reference to God’s grace and the “bastard blue blood of disgrace” at the end of this poem reflects how unjust and undeserved the contemporary situation of slave trade is.

The alliteration in the words “bastard blue blood” also adds to the strength of Iowe’s message. In King of Hearts, the contrast between power over minds and over hearts shows a clear distinction between the fake control over the slaves and the true power of leadership. Through this contrast, Fross is able to condemn the “fools” who had only ostensible control over the slaves, but had failed to establish the real leadership. In the tenth sonnet of the poem A Wreath for Emmett Till, Nelson establishes a contrast between “lilacs from the dooryard” and “wildflowers” at the beginning of the sonnet. Lilacs, a symbol for people of social status, reflects the commonness of the “wildflowers”, which in this case stands for Emmett Till, a common black teenager who lost his life due to an unfortunate accident with a white woman. Similarly, the image of “greening woods” followed immediately by a meditation on “death” suggests the unexpectedness of Till’s death. In Conductor, Nelson contrasts the peaceful image of “raising my girls” with

the shockingly sad confession of “making friends with death”, demonstrating an abrupt change in the narrator’s thoughts. Moreover, the contrast between the “birth” and the “grave” in the last stanza reveals that the narrator has nothing to lose because of the limited time of his life. Also, the seemingly paradoxical comparison between “what we give away” and “all we can save” exactly restates the central idea of this poem—“to be of use.”
Allusion is also widely used in the poems.

In The Little Black Boy, the “shady grove” alludes to the Southern plantations where slaves have worked. The “shady grove”, unlike the “beams of love”, serves to limit the slaves’ basic rights and freedom. The “middle passage” in Over the Middle Passage of Time is an allusion to the triangular trade, in which numerous Africans were forced to become slaves and transported to other continents. The allusion to historical facts adds credibility to the poem as a whole and strengthens the pitiful emotions evoked by the poet Iowe. In the same poem, Iowe applies a biblical reference—“the last supper”—to indicate that the minds of the slaves do not belong here and their “last supper” shall happen at their birthplace. However, the fact that this proposal is not achievable makes the situation of slaves more poignant and hopeless. Then in the tenth sonnet of A Wreath for Emmett Till, the image “lilacs from the dooryard” is an allusion to a poem When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d by Walt Whitman. Like Whitman’s elegy to Abraham Lincoln, Nelson’s sonnet is also an elegy, but to a common person, Till. Nelson establishes a comparison between the two people in order to suggest that Till deserves to be remembered, like Lincoln. In the poem Conductor, by contrast, Nelson alludes to a historical event—the Underground Railroad, which stands for the secret routes for runaway slaves from the South to the freedom in the north. In referring to the

railroad in the second stanza of the poem, Nelson stresses the determination of the narrator in being of use in the Underground Railroad, since participation at the time was against the laws in the south. The allusion to the Underground Railroad also provides an apt historical background of the poem, justifying the emotions and actions of the narrator.
Finally, the poets make subtle yet efficient use of metaphor to convey their messages about slavery. In The Little Black Boy, for instance, the “angel” is a metaphor for a clean, innocent, and chaste soul. The figurative language here adds visual intensity to the concept of the “English child”. Further, the metaphor “lambs” indicates how weak and helpless blacks are under the system of slavery. In Over the Middle Passage of Time, the “lit torch” in the last stanza signifies the continuing hope among the slaves throughout many generations. The “torch” also symbolizes the lasting rage of the blacks. In King of Hearts, Fross uses the metaphor “sky” and “stars” to describe the enormous potential of controlling hearts. Reaching stars in the sky is compared to the strength of love and sacrifices, thus indicating the benefits of becoming the “king of hearts”. In the tenth sonnet of Nelson’s elegy to Emmett Till, the white flowers “trillium” and “Queen Anne’s lace” are metaphors that symbolize Till’s innocence. This bouquet of innocence appeals to pathos by saddening the readers with the images of white flowers. Other metaphors in this poem, such as “ice shards of hate” and “choirs of small birds” serve to make the descriptions more vivid and appealing. In this case, the metaphors intensify the degree of hate and the melody of birds’ euphony. “Small birds” and “pathless woods” are another pair of metaphor that demonstrates the contrast between disturbance and innocence. The “woods”, which symbolizes the originally peaceful black community, is disturbed by “intruders”, but the powerless “birds” can do nothing more than verbal protests. In Conductor, “knees” and “hairbrush” are examples of metaphor that indicate the old age. The narrator’s ability to “forecast rain” and to “yield silver curls” suggests the subtleness of his aging process and the sorrows that he feels about the passage of time. Also, the metaphor “time is a thief” suggests that the lives of individuals are always short-lived, and that people rarely notice when time passes by quietly.
The use of contrast, allusion, and metaphor is prevalent in all five poems, although they may be written in different times and at different places. All of the poets are effective in using these techniques in the poems to convey their messages about racial discrimination and its unforgivable nature.