e 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 faceIs 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 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, Ill shade him from the heat til he can bear/ To lean in joy upon our fathers 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. And then Ill 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 wont be loved until he is like someone else. Another poem of Blakes that shows the innocence of children is 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 who has had experience in the business for some time. He is trying to give advise to a new chimney sweeper named Tom Dacre.Theres little Tom Dacre, who cries when his headThat curld like a lambs back, was shavd, so I said,Hush Tom! never mind it, for when your heads bare,You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair. (5,8)Here the chimneysweeper is telling Tom that his hair cant be ruined if it is shaved and that it is nothing to cry about because it is part of the job. Later that night, when they went to bed, Tom had a dream. He dreamt, That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned & Jack, / Were all of them lockd up in coffins of black. (11,12) Here the coffins are used to represent the chimn...
