William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909.
The Little Black BoyWilliam Blake (17571827)
M
And I am black, but O my soul is white;
White as an angel is the English child,
But I am black, as if bereav’d of light.
And, sitting down before the heat of day,
She took me on her lap and kissèd me,
And, pointing to the east, began to say:
And gives His light, and gives His heat away;
And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
Comfort in morning, joy in the noon day.
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.
The cloud will vanish, we shall hear His voice,
Saying: “come out from the grove, My love and care,
And round My golden tent like lambs rejoice.”’
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,
To lean in joy upon our father’s knee;
And then I’ll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him, and he will then love me.