The little black boy | My mother bore me in the southern wild

My mother bore me in the southern wild

Language: English

My mother bore me in the southern wild, 
  And I am black, but O! my soul is white!
White as an angel is the English child, 
  But I am black, as if bereaved of light. 

My mother taught me underneath a tree, 
  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: 

"Look [at]² the rising sun: there God does live, 
  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. 

"And we are put on earth a little space, 
  That we may learn to bear the beams of love; 
And these black bodies and this sunburnt face 
  [Are]¹ but a cloud, and like a shady grove. 

"For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear, 
  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.' " 

Thus did my mother say, and kissèd me;
  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, 

I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear 
  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.

Available sung texts: ← What is this?

• W. Bolcom • H. Cowell

H. Cowell sets stanzas 2-5

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Bolcom: "Is"
² Bolcom, Cowell: "on"

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "The little black boy", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 5, first published 1789 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by William Bolcom (b. 1938), "The little black boy", 1956-81 [ solo voices, chorus, orchestra ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
by (William) Havergal Brian (1876 - 1972), "The little black boy", 1914, published c1929 [ unison chorus and piano ], London : Augener [sung text not yet checked]
by Vincent Henry Palmer Caillard, Sir (1856 - 1930), "The little black boy", published 1891 [ voice and piano ], from The Songs of Innocence of William Blake, no. 5, London : Novello, Ewer & Co. [sung text not yet checked]
by Henry Dixon Cowell (1897 - 1965), "The little black boy", L. 783 (1947), published c1964, first performed 1954, stanzas 2-5 [ high voice or medium voice, piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by John Charlton Crawford (b. 1931), "The little black boy", published c1985 [ SSA chorus and instrumental ensemble or keyboard ] [sung text not yet checked]
by John Charlton Crawford (b. 1931), "The little black boy", first performed 1976 [ women's chorus, piano ], from Three Blake Songs, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
by Richard Jackson Cumming (b. 1928), "The little black boy", published c1966 [ medium voice and piano ], NY : Boosey & Hawkes [sung text not yet checked]
by Elyse Donathan Curtis (b. 1929), "The little black boy", c1974, first performed 1974 [ medium voice, chorus, and piano ], from Nine Songs of William Blake, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert W. Emery , "The little black boy", c1976 [sung text not yet checked]
by René Frank (1910 - 1965), "The little black boy", op. 8 no. 3, published c1950 [ high voice and piano ], NY : H. W. Gray Co. (Belwin-Mills) [sung text not yet checked]
by Ole Carsten Green (b. 1922), "The little black boy", op. 27b no. 5 (1973) [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
by Joseph Holbrooke (1878 - 1958), "The blackboy", op. 130 no. 6 (1934), from Songs of Innocence, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
by Helen C. Howarth , "The black boy", published c1909 [ medium voice and piano ], from 7 songs of William Blake, no. 7, London ; New York : Breitkopf & Härtel [sung text not yet checked]
by Paul Edwin Karvonen (b. 1917), "The little black boy", published 1960 [ soprano, string quartet, and clarinet ], Ann Arbor, University Microfilms [sung text not yet checked]
by Daniel Kidane (b. 1986), "The Little Black Boy", first performed 2018 [ tenor and piano ], from Songs of Illumination, no. 3, confirmed with a concert programme booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
by Huub de Lange (b. 1955), "The little black boy", published 2007 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Four Blake Songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Ernest Viviani Lubin (1916 - 1977), "The little black boy", published c1945 [ high voice and piano ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 3, NY : G. Schirmer [sung text not yet checked]
by Frederick M. May (1911 - 1985), "The little black boy", 194-?, first performed 1971 [ low voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Juliet Raphael , "Little black boy", published c1945, unpublished [sung text not yet checked]
by Ellen Raskin (1928 - 1984), "The little black boy", published 1966 [ voice and piano or guitar ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 5, Garden City, NY : Doubleday [sung text not yet checked]
by Geraldine Dorothy Rasmussen (b. 1925?6), "The little black boy", 1970, published c1981 [ voice, piano, and flute ], Fort Lauderdale, FL : privately published [sung text not yet checked]
by Elie Siegmeister (1909 - 1991), "The little black boy", 1972, rev. 1985 [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by William Marion Smith , "The little black boy ", 1966, published c1967 [ soprano and orchestra ], from Four Songs on Texts by William Blake, no. 3, Ann Arbor : University Microfilms ; part of a dissertation [sung text not yet checked]
by Andreas Stelzer (b. 1956), "Black boy", registered 1981 (GEMA) [sung text not yet checked]
by Ronald Stevenson (b. 1928), "The little black boy", 1948-50, rev. 1965 [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 5, another version exists for voice, flute, and string quintet (composed 1966-71) [sung text not yet checked]
by Anthony Strilko (b. 1931), "The little black boy", 1960? [ high voice and piano ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by John Austin Sykes (1909 - 1962), "The little black boy", 1935-6, first performed 1975 [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
by Dom Thomas Symons (1887 - 1975), "The little black boy ", published 1925 [ voice and piano ], London : W. Rogers (Boosey & Hawkes) [sung text not yet checked]
by Virgil Garnett Thomson (1896 - 1989), "The little black boy", published c1953 [ medium voice and piano ], from Five Songs from William Blake, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Rudolph T. Werther (1896 - 1986), "The little black boy " [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this page: Ahmed E. Ismail

This text was added to the website: 2005-01-16
Line count: 28
Word count: 248