In both poems, the sons are learning about life issues. In “Mother to Son”, the narrator describes to her son that no matter what obstacles come in her way, she keeps climbing the stairs. "Tacks," "splinters," and other obstructions hinder her ascent, but she refuses to "set down on the steps." Looking deeper into the poem, the tacks placed on the staircase in the mother's path could be a specific oppressive incident placed there by another party. A splinter in the staircase is a negative consequence of the staircase itself. Therefore, the mother's "splint

In William Blake’s poem “The Little Black Boy”, the narrator is the black child. He tells the story of hoe he came to know his own identity and to know God. The boy, who was born in “the southern wild” of Africa, first explains that though his skin is black, his soul is as white as that of an English child. He relates how his mother taught him about God, who gives light and life to all creation and comfort and joy to men. “We are put on earth," his mother says, to learn to accept God's love. She persuades him, according to conventional Christian doctrine, that earthly life is but a preparation for the rewards of heaven. In this context, their dark skin is similarly but a temporary appearance, with no bearing on their eternal essence. Skin, which is a factor only in this earthly life, becomes irrelevant from the perspective of heaven. He is told that his black skin "is but a cloud" that will be dissipated when his soul meets God in heaven. The black boy passes on this lesson to an English child, explaining that his white skin is likewise a cloud. He vows that when they are both free of their bodies and delighting in the presence of God, he will shade his white friend until he, too, learns to bear the heat of God's love. Then, the black boy says, he will be like the English boy, and the English boy will love him.

Although there is a life lesson to be learned in both of these poems, the mothers are educating their sons on two very different things. In “Mother to Son”, the mother is teaching her son about never giving up, no matter what the situation may be. She is explaining to him that he should continue to climb the stairs, no matte

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