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The Little Black Boy (Blake)

from Poetry and Music 3 by Toby Darling

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lyrics

The Little Black Boy
BY WILLIAM BLAKE

Em –A Em
My mother bore me in the southern wild,
D Em
And I am black, but O! my soul is white;
Em –A Em
White as an angel is the English child:
D Em
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.

Em D G A
Look on the rising sun: there God does live
Em Bm7 C D
And gives his light, and gives his heat away.
Em D G A
And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
Em Bm7 C D
Comfort in morning joy in the noonday.

Em Bm7 C D
And we are put on earth a little space,
Em D C D
That we may learn to bear the beams of love,
Em Bm7 C D
And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face
Em D C D
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 & 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:

Em D
Ill shade him from the heat till he can bear,
C D G C
To lean in joy upon our fathers knee.
C D G A
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
C D Em
And be like him and he will then love me.

credits

from Poetry and Music 3, released April 27, 2016

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Toby Darling Penang, Malaysia

Amateur enthusiast.
Feel free to do anything you want with these tracks, I am not interested in making money from music.

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