William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908.
Songs of InnocenceThe Little Black Boy
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 noonday.
That we may learn to bear the beams of love;
And these black bodies and this sunburnt 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.