Analysis of William Blake's The Little Boy Found including the key themes, perfect for a-level literature

1. The Little Boy Found
Key Themes
● The vulnerability of innocence - Innocence is especially endangered when it is ignorant of the
‘woe' in life and of the possibility of failure and betrayal.
● Parenting - The insufficiency of human parenting, which leaves an infant isolated and lost, is
exposed. By contrast, the parenting of God can be seen as providing true guidance and drawing
alongside the child's experience in a loving, secure relationship.
● God in man's image - Blake disagreed with the creation of the image of an external God-figure,
as simply being a projection of human needs and attitudes. In The Little Boy Found, this is seen
as escapist, a desire to evade awareness of vulnerability and potential loss.
Analysis
● The Little Boy Found is about the finding of the lost boy, who has been following a 'wandr'ing
light'. God appears and leads him back to his mother, who has been searching for him.
● Strangely, she was searching for him in the dale, not the fen. This could be interpreted as
meaning she was in the wrong place and would not have found him without God's help.
● ABCB rhyme scheme in both stanzas, it is easily identified, making it seem more organized and
“right” to the reader's senses - Similar to that of a nursery room.
● The little boy represents the human soul or spirit, seeking God the Father in a sin-wracked world
that seeks to obliterate the signs of His presence..
● It is only through the intervention of God Himself in the poem that the child returns to a state of
safety, possibly intended to suggest the salvation of the regenerate soul, in the arms of a
maternal figure.
● The nurturing mother is able to give comfort where the earthly father and or the society created
by such men only offer abandonment and hopelessness.
● Blake may be suggesting a stronger healing power within “mother earth” than within the “father
church” of his day.
● He may also be seeking to balance the male and female aspects of creation: the male, in this
case God the Father, leads the soul to its destination, while the female passively awaits the soul
to offer it bliss.
● The line ‘appears like his father', could suggest that this external Father God is simply a fantasy
of perfect fatherhood, substituting for the reality. This would accord with what is known of Blake's
beliefs.
● The child is given to his mother, as though he is her possession. Yet parents have already been
seen to be suspect.
● Similarly to The Little Boy Lost, the poem is aware of the potential inadequacy of parental figures.
When the innocent are unaware of this it demonstrates that innocence is vulnerable; lacking
wisdom provides an incomplete vision of life. In this sense, Blake can also be seen to parody
contemporary Christian approaches to God as an external ‘father figure'.
● The title of this poem gives us optimism, despite the fact that the first line reiterates the boy's
plight: "lost in the lonely fen"
● "Led by the wand'ring light" raises an interesting question: is he lost because he followed the
wandering light away from his father, or is the light at the end of the last poem, which we thought
had vanished, now leading him on. The line could also suggest that the light intended to lead the
boy to God, in the same way that the light of a star is said to have led the wise men to Jesus.
Light is a symbol of goodness, as it counters the 'evil' dark.

2. ● However, the light's more constant presence and association with God's guidance in this poem
may allude to the pillar of fire by which God led the children of Israel away from the danger of
Egypt and through the wilderness (Exodus 13:21).
● The boy is still crying, but the figure of God appears to him (line 3). He is apparently a real figure,
dressed in white - to some, the colour of purity.
● The final stanza tells the happy ending to the story. God cares for the boy and brings him to his
mother, who had been distraught with worry ("in sorrow pale", line 7) and searching for him.
● Through this simple juxtaposition of darkness and light, Blake wants to make us feel that being
lost is like being denied the light; while being found is like having light shining down upon us once
again.
● Lonely fen / dale – In opposition to the pastoral ideal, Blake presents the rural landscape as one
of comfortless isolation and consequent distress.
Critical Quotations
● “The Little Boy Found”, the boy does not stay lost: he is rescued by God who appears in the form
of his father. Complex theological (religious) ideas are at work here. Blake did not believe that
God was some great giant or superhuman old man up in the sky. He saw God as, from one
aspect, like an “ordinary” human being, only a perfected one (i.e. completely kind, good, and
unselfish). Here the child cannot rescue itself, but God comes to it in the form of its father,
comforts it, and leads it back to its mother. - University of Buckingham
● The boy follows a cloudy figure that he mistakenly takes as being his father when in fact ‘no
father was there’. The boy has been misled by the depth of the mist, or ‘mire’, and by what is
variously described as a ‘vapour’ or, in The Little Boy Found, a ‘wand’ring light’. When he
realises that he is lost, it is a watchful, caring and affectionate God who appears ‘like his father in
white’ to guide him safely home to his anxious mother. - Jeff Gillett
Links to Ford
● Religion - The friar offers religion as a form of escapism to Giovanni much like the ‘wand’ring
light’ that leads the child to safety. Repentance is common throughout both texts, the friar acts as
the light to Giovanni by leading by example and explaining that Giovanni can be forgiven for his
sins (incest)
● "Led by the wand'ring light" raises an interesting question: is he lost because he followed the
wandering light away from his father - Similar to Annabella and Giovanni’s downfall, after hiding
their love from their father Florio and therefore dishonouring their family. Annabella’s love for
Giovanni turns her against her other suitors meaning their family’s honour will be greatly
tarnished.