Because I was happy upon the heath,

And smiled among the winter's snow,

They clothed me in the clothes of death,

And taught me to sing the notes of woe.

And because I am happy and dance and sing,

They think they have done me no injury,

And are gone to praise God and his priest and king, Who make up a heaven of our misery."

In these two poems, Mark Blake was allegorically relating the importance of God and religion in our lives. In The Little Black Boy, he gives an optimistic perception of God. The poem having the persona of an African child who questions his color and identity learns from his mother that God does not base his love on the color of one's skin. His mother also teaches him that the lives we have here on earth are temporary and but mere preparations of the rewards...
[ View Full Essay]