LITTLE BOY LOST

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Songs of Innocence

Plate 13

The third poem which Blake composed when he was writing Island in the Moon is The Little Boy Lost.

Songs of Innocence, Song 13, (E 11)   
"The Little Boy lost      
Father, father, where are you going
O do not walk so fast.
Speak father, speak to your little boy
Or else I shall be lost,

The night was dark no father was there   
The child was wet with dew,
The mire was deep, & the child did weep
And away the vapour flew."

In The Little Boy Lost the child does not experience innocence in the sense of feeling secure and protected. This is a child who feels inadequate to deal with the outer world which is dark and confusing. I think of the autistic child who can't seem to make the connections with the outer world that he is expected to make. Blake tells us that it was the child's weeping, his expression of feeling emotional sadness, that clarified the obscuring conditions.

If this little poem is taken in the psychological sense it represents falling into the depths of the journey into the unconscious where a restructuring of the psyche is demanded. The adult experiences a conundrum for which no solution seems possible. Unless he starts again as a little child who weeps and begs for mercy he is stuck in the mire. 

To put the picture into more spiritual terms if one realizes that the image of God on which one has depended is false, one must be willing to to encounter the true God who will be revealed to those who are ready to receive. In the poem the child has lost sight of the father, he feels abandoned until he weeps and the cloudiness begins to dissipate. 

This passage in the Psalms is brought to mind by Little Boy Lost:

Psalms 69
[1] Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
[2] I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
[3] I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
[4] They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.
[5] O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
...
[13] But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
[14] Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
[15] Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
[16] Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

In the poem Blake indicates the response of the father to the pleas of the child only by the stating that the 'vapor flew' and by showing in the picture that the child is drawn to a light in the distance. However in the lower part of the plate surrounding the words are four angelic figures and two wingless supporting figures.

The images of rush, mire and water from this verse in the Book of Job seem to have been in Blake's mind also.

 Job 8
[11] Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?

The copy of the plate which is shown above is Copy Y belonging to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Blake had added details which are not seen in other copies. Notably there are bulrushes on the lower borders of the image and behind the child. The wavy line across the bottom of the plate suggests water or mire.   

The impression given by this plate is of the plight of the innocent who seeks to be heard by the father. He receives little help, but hope that he will find what he seeks is not absent.