Blake’s “The Little Black Boy”

As it should have always been with regard to approaching any of the works of William Blake's ‘Composite Art', a three-fold approach of viewing the text of the poem side by side with its illuminated painting and in the context of the Bible is followed in this study of “The Little Black Boy”, too. Dwelling on the critical heritage of this attractive song, an attempt is made in this study specially focus on the reversal of the roles of the white boy and the black boy in realizing the core principles of human love which breaks the barriers of caste, colour and creed. William Blake using his skilful touches both with the lines and the images and with the strong allusions to the biblical themes of love, very effectively connives at the supreme importance of bearing with any human beings irrespective of caste, colour and creed which is the basis for peaceful and healthy human co-existence. In the sheepfold of Jesus Christ, the Eternal Shepherd, children of all colours and castes and creeds join flock together and any sort of superiority on the basis of colour, caste or creed is purely a creation of the privileged class and not at all reasonable or compatible with Christ's world view.