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,
The order of “flowers and trees and beasts and men” is interesting—"men" are last on this list. This implies that whatever light we receive, we are either less aware and grateful than “flowers and trees and beasts” or that we use God’s “light” in a fundamentally different manner than those creations.
The Little Black Boy Songs of Innocence