...mother taught me underneath a tree, And sitting down before the heat of day, She took me on her lap and kissed me, And pointing to the east began to say, 'Look on the rising sun: there God does live, 10 And gives his light, and gives his heat away; And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive Comfort...

...The only goal that can motivate us for a lifetime is a deepening love of God. William Blake wrote: And we are put on earth a little space, That we may learn to bear the beams of love.2 The span of human life feels very short when we recognize how much we have to learn. First we...

...assigning means to ends, proposing providential wisdom as a way of justifying earthly circumstances: Look on the rising sun: there God does live And gives...and beasts and men receive Comfort in morning joy in noon day. And we are put on earth a little space, That we may learn to bear the beams of love, And...

...university are only too well aware. Blake has well described our human condition in his Songs of Innocence: And we are put on earth a little space, That we may learn to bear the beams of love.21 Time is thus an all-important dimension of our created personhood, the setting that makes it...

...the soul to the more perfect revelation of Himself. The negro mother explains it to her little boy : Look on the rising sun, — there God does live, And gives his lighb, and gives his heat away ; And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive Comfort in morning,...

...upon our father's knee. God lives in the rising sun, "and gives his light and gives his heat away." And we are put on earth a little space That we may learn to bear the beams of love.24 The black child, sheltering the white, can bear those beams more readily. Blackness is not...

...mother taught me underneath a tree: And sitting down before the heat of day. She took me on her lap and kissed me. And pointing to the east began to say:—...morning, joy in the noon day. 'And we are put on earth a litde space. That we may learn to bear the beams of love: And these black bodies, and this sun-burnt...

...mother taught me underneath a tree And sitting down before the heat of day, She took me on her lap and kissed me, And pointing to the east began to say,...heat away. And flowers and trees and beasts and men recieve Comfort in morning joy in the noon day. And we are put on earth a little space. That we may...

...uncorrupted Eden-like country.61 In the poem, Blake has the black boy remember the teachings of his mother: 'Look on the rising sun: there God does live / And gives his light, and gives his heat away' (E 9). This suggests that Africans are better adjusted to the sun and thus are closer to God but further...

...inapproachable light for particular poetic purposes. In the case of 'The Little Black Boy' God is light: 'Look on the rising sun: there God does live, /And gives his light and gives his heat away'(11. 9-10). Rather than being 'bereav'd of light' (1. 4), the boy's dark skin signifies a proximity...