​Original Art Story - African American Boys Portraits

The Little Black Boy

BY WILLIAM BLAKE
(28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827)


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 bereav'd of light.


My 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,
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
Is 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 kissed 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.



Please visit my Portrait Gallery at: http://xueling-zou.artistwebsites.com/art/all/oils+-+portrait+of+people+or+animals/all

Or join me at:
FaceBook, Instagram,Twitter, Pinterest

Original Art Story

A female model's first sitting

Plein Air @ Santa Clara University Santa Clara CA

Six hours study with the same sitter

Sketching @ Apple Park Cupertino CA

Portrait and figurative studies of a model

Plein Air @ Mission San José Fremont CA 加州風景寫生

Plein Air @ Elim Assembly of God Church Santa Clara CA 加州風景寫生

Live study of a young model in a red dress

Plein Air @ Ed Levin County Park, Milpitas CA

Plein Air @ Orchard Heritage Park Sunnyvale CA 加州風景寫生