Themes of childhood innocence and a childlike perspective on the world are explored by both William Wordsworth and William Blake in their poetry, particularly in the poems \u201cWe Are Seven\u201d by Wordsworth and \u201cThe Little Black Boy\u201d by Blake. Each of these works examines a different frame of reference from which a child confronts an issue that is arguably very difficult to comprehend at a young age. The children represented in each of the poems are forced to grapple with mature, adult issues. In Wordsworth\u2019s poem, the subject deals with grief, whereas in Blake\u2019s poem, the child is trying to understand his identity. The juxtaposition of child characters with adult scenarios highlights just how tender-aged these children are. Through the imposition of saddening scenarios on children, Wordsworth and Blake both beg the question of whether or not any age is considered too young to endure the pains of life. They also acknowledge that no one, regardless of their circumstances, is free from dealing with complex emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Wordsworth\u2019s poem \u201cWe Are Seven\u201d he highlights a childlike approach to the loss of one\u2019s siblings. He shares a conversation between the speaker of the poem and a young girl with seven siblings, two of which have passed away. Despite their passing, she continues to play and interact with them as if they are still living. This approach presents an example of joy, hopefulness, and wonder that has not yet been jaded by the horrors of the world. Even a child <\/p>\n\n\n\n
who has experienced such loss has not allowed herself to be consumed by it; rather, she finds new ways to interact with her late siblings and remains content with her circumstances. During a conversation between the little girl and the speaker, they argue back and forth: \u201c\u2018But they are dead; those two are dead! Their spirits are in heaven!\u2019 \u2018Twas throwing words away; for still The little Maid would have her will, And said, \u2018Nay, we are seven!\u2019\u201d By refusing to remove them from her count of seven, they remain alive in her imagination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The young girl\u2019s ability to fuse the realms of life and death also serve as an allusion to the power of the mind, self, and imagination, a theme that is widely explored within Wordsworth\u2019s work as well as under the umbrella of Romanticism. Rather than dwelling on the sadness of her siblings\u2019 deaths, she searches for any way that she can keep them alive. This ability gives her power and agency to form her own thoughts despite the popular belief that death is an ending. In this instance, I would argue that her innocence shields her from the largely unforgiving reality of death. In the first stanza of the poem, the speaker says \u201c–A simple child, that lightly draws its breath, And feels its life in every limb, What should it know of death?\u201d The author explicitly acknowledges the fact that because she is close to the beginning of her own life, she shouldn\u2019t have to know the end of another. But I would argue that because she is a young child who has not spent a full lifetime learning and understanding death, she can imagine her own version of death, one that still permits her to sing to and talk to her late brother and sister. This indicates that even from an early age, she is able to distinguish between a physical absence and a spiritual one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The speaker of the poem repeatedly asks the little girl why she continues to say that she has seven siblings if two of them are dead, and each time she insists that she still has seven. One example occurs when the speaker says: \u201c\u2018You run about, my little Maid, Your limbs they are <\/p>\n\n\n\n
alive; If two are in the church-yard laid, Then ye are only five.\u2019\u201d Her response to this is \u201c\u2018Their graves are green, they may be seen,\u2019 The little Maid replied.\u201d The repetition of this notion <\/p>\n\n\n\n
throughout the poem places emphasis on her insistence that they are indeed seven. I argue that through this repetition, she obtains the power and control to decide when her siblings are truly gone and for her, their death does equal complete disappearance. Furthermore, Wordsworth chooses to capitalize the word \u201cMaid\u201d throughout the poem, I think this choice of spelling contributes further to the power that the young girl holds. By capitalizing the word he uses to refer to her, he is distinguishing her as a person of value and importance. Even though \u201cMaid\u201d is not her name, it still elicits the same emphasis as a name or a proper noun would. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout Blake\u2019s poem, \u201cThe Little Black Boy,\u201d he uses the contrast between both white and black to convey a little boy\u2019s internal thoughts about the color of his skin. In the first few lines he states, \u201cAnd I am black, but O! My soul is white; white as an angel is the English child, But I am black as if bereav\u2019d of light\u201d This statement has the implication that white is an <\/p>\n\n\n\n
angelic color, and one that is full of light, conversely black is described as a color that is \u201cbereav\u2019d of light\u201d or in other words “robbed\u201d of light. The concept of light has an inherently positive connotation, one that is both happy and good. Therefore, something that has been robbed of light could represent the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the text, the boy\u2019s mother describes his \u201cblack body and sunburnt face\u201d as nothing but a \u201ccloud.\u201d The symbol of a cloud functioning as a representation of the little boy\u2019s skin suggests that the skin he was born with is a mere cover. The mother tells her son that his skin is a <\/p>\n\n\n\n
reflection of himself learning to bear the heat of God\u2019s love. This use of imagery implies that the color of his skin is a temporary state that is subject to change, and therefore that it should change. However, hearing these words as a child is arguabl<\/p>\n\n\n\n
y very degrading. This statement insinuates that he should strive to appear differently than he does in order to receive love. The idea that his <\/p>\n\n\n\n
skin is a \u201ccloud\u201d develops further as the poem continues when the young speaker says: \u201cI\u2019ll shade him from the heat till he can bear To lean in joy upon our father\u2019s knee. And I\u2019ll stand and <\/p>\n\n\n\n
stroke his silver hair, And be like him, and he will then love me.\u201d In this line, the little boy is implying that he must endure a series of steps before he can truly be loved. He says that he will only be loved if he can one day appear like the little white boy. This line in particular gives the poem a sad, lonely tone, considering that a young child is questioning what must happen before he can be loved. In these lines, the little boy also suggests that he has to serve as \u201cshade\u201d or a shield for the little white boy, and the idea that his dark skin is a cloud convinces him of this. But what makes the little white boy more deserving of shade than the little Black boy himself? And who, in turn, will shield the little Black boy? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both poets explore a number of issues through the scope of these two works. Neither of the child characters of the poems have chosen their respective fates, yet they are forced to cope with the societal implications of their realities. For the young maiden in Wordsworth\u2019s \u201cWe Are Seven,\u201d this takes the form of living with and understanding death, all while figuring out what it means to be alive. Her willful imagination forces us to revisit our own definitions of death, and <\/p>\n\n\n\n
encourages us to approach conversations about our own lost loved ones with different language. Whereas for the little boy in Blake\u2019s \u201cThe Little Black Boy,\u201d he is learning how to be loved with <\/p>\n\n\n\n
an implied and superficial sense of otherness. This convinces him that he must shed himself of one of his defining characteristics, the \u201ccloud\u201d that is his skin, in order to experience love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Themes of childhood innocence and a childlike perspective on the world are explored by both William Wordsworth and William Blake in their poetry, particularly in the poems \u201cWe Are Seven\u201d by Wordsworth and \u201cThe Little Black Boy\u201d by Blake. Each of these works examines a different frame of reference from which a child confronts an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-britishliterature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgianoori.com\/project-three\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgianoori.com\/project-three\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgianoori.com\/project-three\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgianoori.com\/project-three\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgianoori.com\/project-three\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/georgianoori.com\/project-three\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118,"href":"https:\/\/georgianoori.com\/project-three\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgianoori.com\/project-three\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgianoori.com\/project-three\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgianoori.com\/project-three\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgianoori.com\/project-three\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}