She turns corners, unknowing of what might lie just beyond each bend. She continues on to where she is "sometimes goin' in the dark." She cannot see what might happen next, but she has no other option but to continue or she will have to turn back. .
At this point, the mother advises her son, "don't you turn back." He must continue to remain on course up the stairs. She insists that he is not to stray from walking up those steps. She tells him "don't you set down on the steps" because he will find out that it is much harder to continue from that point. Near the end of the poem, the mother is stressing to her son that it is imperative that he strives to reach the top of the stairs, regardless of the difficulties. She has done the same and she hasn't reached the top because she continues to climb. .
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.