Art Movement Warhol And Elvis Presley - 1121 Words

The mid-twentieth century brought the arrival of the art movement known as Pop Art. The movement was given this name because its artwork was based on concepts of popular culture especially commercialism. One of the most notable artists of this period was Andy Warhol. Warhol did work with comics as Roy Lichtenstein, another prominent artist of the movement, was known for doing, but he ultimately abandoned them in pursuit of other approaches. Warhol is partially known for incorporating celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley into his work, but he also painted Campbell’s soup cans. These Campbell’s soup cans are the subject matter of Warhol’s art that will be specifically addressed here. Andy Warhol often asked others for ideas for his art, and though they offered suggestions, rarely did these ideas feel right to him. However, the idea for his famous Campbell’s soup cans was a significant exception. At a party one night, an art consultant by the name of Muriel Latow, told Warhol that he â€Å"‘should paint something that everybody sees every day†¦like cans of soup’† (Greenberg and Jordan 42). Andy accepted this challenge, and the rest is history. During his lifetime, Warhol went on to produce hundreds of Campbell’s soup cans. Perhaps the most significant design principle Warhol utilized in his soup cans series—and most of his artwork for that matter—is repetition. Warhol’s 1962 Campbell’s Soup Cans, for instance, has the repetition of thirty-two cans of Campbell’sShow MoreRelatedAttention Getter : The American Culture1387 Words   |  6 Pagesthese concepts into his artistic ability and thereby created a whole new culture in what we see is art today. This man who is considered one of the fathers of pop art goes by the name of Andy Warhol. or When we eat a slice of pizza we tend to wash it down with a bottle of Coke when we re feeling sick we tend to have some Campbell s chicken noodle soup when we think of rock n roll the name Elvis Presley comes to mind and for America s sweetheart and movie actress there is none other than MarilynRead MoreIs Andy Warhol a Genius of Art and Culture?793 Words   |  3 PagesThis research paper studies the graft and career of Andy Warhol and presents the question of whether Warhol should be regarded--as a genius of art or a culture thief. Many credit Andy Warhol with revolutionizing and influencing 20th Century art and culture. However, Although Warhol had a successful and rewarding life; His childhood was nothing less than average. His life was a struggle: As young lad he contracted rheumatic fever and as a result he suffered from neurological problems. His was bornRead MoreAnalysis Of Warhol s First Solo New York Exhibit At Eleanor Ward s Stable Gallery1329 Words   |  6 Pageswas one of the many famous quotes uttered by the eccentric yet revolutionary artist, Andy Warhol. At first one might think this quote would be the word of an advertising agent and indeed it is. This very idea, however, is what created the commercialized idea of Pop Art in the 1960s. Andy Warhol’s background as a commercial illustrator provided him with the ability to pioneer a new artistic movement. Warhol highlights the American shift towards consumerism through his work by using the techniquesRead MoreAndy Warhol: Influence on the Twentieth Century Pop Art Movement1065 Words   |  5 PagesAs a profound influence on the twentieth century pop art movement, Andy Warhol ascended to become a cornerstone in the modern art world. After taking cues from society in the mid-twentieth century, as well as conversing with Muriel Latow, Warhol did what many artists strived to do but failed. Andy also extracted many of his ideas from other artists and built on them. He put a culture on ca nvas and revolutionized pop art for a life time. The nineteen sixties, seventies, and eighties were periodsRead MoreAndy Warhol Essay1048 Words   |  5 PagesAs a profound influence on the twentieth century pop art movement, Andy Warhol ascended to become a cornerstone in the modern art world. After taking cues from society in the mid-twentieth century, as well as conversing with Muriel Latow, Warhol did what many artists strived to do but failed. Andy also extracted many of his ideas from other artists and built on them. He put a culture on canvas and revolutionized pop art for a life time. The nineteen sixties, seventies, and eighties were periodsRead MoreWarhol And The Pop Art Movement2609 Words   |  11 PagesAndy Warhol being not simply a Pop artist, but an American artist who was known as the master of Pop Art, and about two of Warhol’s most famous paintings; Coca-Cola and Campbell’s Soup Cans. Andy Warhol was an artist and filmmaker, an initiator for the Pop Art movement in the 1960s. Warhol used mass production techniques to elevate art into the supposed unoriginality of the commercial culture of the United States. Warhol’s early drawings frequently recalls the Anglo-Saxon tradition of nonsense humorRead MoreAndy Warhol Essay1218 Words   |  5 PagesI selected Andy Warhol because I have long admired his crazy, quirky, unconventional style of producing works of art from normal, everyday subjects ranging from inanimate, normally unnoticed objects to pop culture celebrity icons. I first heard of him in 1986 when his show Andy Warhols Fifte en Minutes aired on MTV. The show featured Andy interviewing what he thought was the next up-and-coming musical sensations about to get their fifteen minutes of fame. Two years later on a poster in theRead MoreDo A Work Of Fine Art?1157 Words   |  5 Pageswork of fine art. What came to mind? Was it a painting by Van Gogh, or Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans, a current pop song, or a symphony by Beethoven, a piece of literature authored by Emily Brontà «, or one by the Kardashians? Due to its objectivity, art is all encompassing: It can be anything created, written, performed, or photographed within which someone finds beauty. Conversely, fine art is exclusive and elite as evidenced by its’ name and the distinction between itself and art as a whole.Read MoreAnnotated Bibliography Of Research On Andy Warhol2354 Words   |  10 PagesAndy Warhol Hereunder is a list of resources broken categorically into three sections: books, video footage and interviews. All of which I will be using in further development of my research paper on Andy Warhol (a.k.a. Andrew Warhola). Following each citation I have written a brief summary pertaining to that particular material and why I chose to use it for my research paper. Although he was not a painter and could not paint very well, according to his own understanding,  ¹ Andy Warhol  ² didRead MoreAmerican Pop Art Essay2717 Words   |  11 Pagesmedias influence on both the formal and iconographic features of American Pop Art. Centre your discussion on one or two examples each of the work of the following artists: Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselmann, James Rosenquist. Pop Art is one of the major art movements of the Twentieth Century. Characterized by themes and techniques drawn from mass culture such as advertising and comic books, pop art is widely interpreted as a reaction to the ideas of abstract expressionism

Graduation Speech I Am Proud - 904 Words

Welcome all graduates, family, friends, and more. I am pleased to be able to speak with all of you today in an achievement that almost a hundred and fifty people have achieved over the last thirteen years of school. We have finally made it to the end of the first chapter of our lives. We all will now start the beginning of the second chapter in our lives. We will explore new areas that we have not been able to explore before, and be on our own for the first time ever. I want to tell all my experiences through my high school career to all of you, and how it affected me. Freshman year is beginning. Holy cow, what have I gotten myself into now? Well, let’s just say it was the beginning of four years I will never forget. Meeting one of my favorite teachers freshman year, Mr. Henderson, was a journey, because he understood me so well. Having him again junior year made it even better. Sophomore year was another great one, meeting another one of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Sweet. She also understood me, and I could talk to her if I needed help with something. I also had her my junior year, which made it pretty good. Junior year, I also met Mrs. Thiesen, my english teacher who was another one of my favorite teachers. She gave me great wisdom, because of the religion we both share, and helped me greatly with english, because I had always struggled with english. During junior year, I also started a relationship with a boy, who I am still dating to this day, and he means the worldShow MoreRelatedGraduation Speech : Graduating High School1034 Words   |  5 Pagesfor me there was a lot of ups and downs, but it got easier once I took things more serious and not as a joke. Having that feeling of knowing that your family members are proud of you is an amazing feeling and having my grandmother explain to me how she felt on my graduation day was heartwarming. The day of graduation I was a nervous wreck, but it was all worth it in the end. Graduating changed my life in a lot of different ways that I wouldn’t have expected but only for the better.. Preparation toRead MoreAnalysis Of Sherman Alexie s Indian Education 1330 Words   |  6 Pagestheir race, background, beliefs, or anything looked at that makes them stand out from others. I was introduced to a short story called â€Å"Indian Education† by Sherman Alexie about a boy named Junior and the struggles he faced throughout school because he was Native American. I was also introduced to another short story called â€Å"Graduation† by Maya Angelou about a young woman named Marguerite Johnson who was proud of her background being â€Å"Negro† even if it included some unfairness. Throughout history discriminationRead MoreGraduation Speech By Maya Angelou1566 Words   |  7 PagesFebruary 18, 2016 Graduation Graduation is a ceremony that almost every single person is familiar with, thus building the connection of the reader. Graduation is an important transition in one’s life. It represents an accomplishment and signifies moving on to something better, more important and the pathway to use one’s knowledge to achieve one’s life goals. It calls for a celebration along with a grand commencement among family, friends, and peers. Maya Angelou’s, â€Å"Graduation†, is about a youngRead MoreWalden University And My Future802 Words   |  4 PagesI am finally at the end of my journey and my graduate degree from Walden University is almost in my hand. Walden has asked me to give a speech at the graduation ceremony. When I was asked to do this, I was not sure what I would say. I spent some time thinking about my past year at Walden, and all of the things that I learned. I went from not knowing what to say when I was originally asked to having an abundance of things I could say about Walden. My future is bright thanks to Walden UniversityRead MoreSpecial Speech On Special Transition891 Words   |  4 Pagespresence alone supports us in every way possible as we are going through a special transition today. Now, I will start my speech. ----- A milestone. What is a milestone? Today, we are going to experience a milestone. A life milestone that all of us, in the future, will look back to and talk about how things were back then to the current lives we live in, the things we regret and the things we are proud of. We will someday, remember what this moment meant for us. But that doesn’t answer what a milestoneRead MoreMy Dad Had A Chronic Breathing Disorder842 Words   |  4 Pagescap and gown before his graduation. â€Å"I remember there were times I felt, I’d never see this day† he proclaimed. My dad had a chronic breathing disorder. Our family doctor has said he probably has died in his sleep many of times and didn’t realize it. It was a scary thing. I hoped I’d never have to be with him alone because I didn’t want him to croak on me. I was too young to see that. I heard those type deaths replayed in the minds of the child all through their lives. I definitely didn’t want theRead More Graduation Speech Essay560 Words   |  3 PagesWhen they were trying to find someone to give this speech they first asked the most intelligent, smart person they could find. But she turned them down. So then they asked the most beautiful, lovely, attractive person they could find. She also turned them down. Next they asked the nicest, sweetest, kindest, most sincere person they could find. Then I decided it would be rude to turn them down three times in a row, so here I am. How many people here like tomato soup? Come on, raise your hand ifRead MoreGraduation Speech : My Fellow Brothers And Sisters854 Words   |  4 PagesGraduation speech My fellow brothers and sisters. High school is reaching its end, We are no longer children of the school. We will all still remember the blood that flows through us as tk trojans. We take pride in our tradition. As we move to the next step in our lives whether it be college or elsewhere i pray that it takes us to a good future. For the athletes i hope you had the best seasons possible. Im sure we have all had a rocky road throughout high school or even in elementary. But i amRead MoreThe Day Of My High School Graduation Speech1512 Words   |  7 Pages When we were younger, I believe we all once wished to become adults fast so that we get to do things on our own. As for me, I have never imagined that I would graduate from high school. I didn’t expect myself to go that far and of course I have never thought about where I am today, a college student. Therefore, the moment that I graduated from high school meant a lot to me. It was the moment that made me be the best out of me, and the moment that helped me coming back to the reality. Read More Graduation Speech Essay1115 Words   |  5 Pagesfaculty, family, friends, on this exciting day, I speak to optimism, laughter, and grins. As I was gathering input for this graduation speech, several people suggested including a profound quote offering â€Å"encouraging advice to the young graduates†, and then there were others who said, â€Å"eh don’t worry about it, no one listens to those anyway.† Fortunately, I was actually able to take from both suggestions and found a happy balance. You see, I won’t tell you today to: â€Å"Dare to dream† or â€Å"Find

Freedom Of Press free essay sample

Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through mediums including various electronic media and published materials. While such freedom mostly implies the absence of interference from an overreaching state, its preservation may be sought through constitutional or other legal protections. With respect to governmental information, any government may distinguish which materials are public or protected from disclosure to the public based on classification of information as sensitive, classified or secret and being otherwise protected from disclosure due to relevance of the information to protecting the national interest. Many governments are also subject to sunshine laws or freedom of information legislation which are both used to define the extent of national interest. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers This philosophy is usually accompanied by legislation ensuring various degrees of freedom of scientific research (known as scientific freedom), publishing, press and printing the depth to which these laws are entrenched in a countrys legal system can go as far down as its constitution. The concept of freedom of speech is often covered by the same laws as freedom of the press, thereby giving equal treatment to spoken and published expression. Beyond legal definitions, several non-governmental organizations use other criteria to judge the level of press freedom around the world. Some of those organizations include the following: Reporters Without Borders The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Freedom House Many of the traditional means of delivering information are being slowly superseded by the increasing pace of modern technological advance. Almost every conventional mode of media and information dissemination has a modern counterpart that offers significant potential advantages to journalists seeking to maintain and enhance their freedom of speech. A few simple examples of such Satellite television Web-based publishing (e. g. , blogging) Voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) Every year, Reporters Without Borders establishes a ranking of countries in terms of their freedom of the press. The Freedom of the Press index, an annual survey of media independence in 197 countries and territories, is based on responses to surveys sent to journalists that are members of partner organizations of the RWB, as well as related specialists such as researchers, jurists and human rights activists. The survey asks questions about direct attacks on journalists and the media as well as other indirect sources of pressure against the free press, such as non-governmental groups. The annual index contains the most comprehensive data set available on global media freedom and is a key resource for scholars, policymakers, international institutions, media, and activists. The index assesses the degree of print, broadcast, and internet freedom in every country in the world, analyzing the events of each calendar year. It provides numerical rankings and rates each countrys media as Free, Partly Free, or Not Free. Country narratives examine the legal environment for the media, political pressures that influence reporting, and economic factors that affect access to information As of 2013, the United States is ranked 32nd in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index. There was a fall from 20th in 2010 to 42nd in 2012, which was attributed to arrests of journalists covering the Occupy movement. In 2011–2012, the countries where press was the most free were Finland, Norway and Germany, followed by Estonia, Netherlands, Austria, Iceland, and Luxembourg. The country with the least degree of press freedom was Eritrea, followed by North Korea, Turkmenistan, Syria, Iran, and China. Freedom of the press in the United States is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, says that Congress shall make no law. abridging (limiting) the freedom of speech, or of the press Freedom of speech is the liberty to speak openly without fear of government restraint. It is closely linked to freedom of the press because this freedom includes both the right to speak and the right to be heard. In the United States, both the freedom of speech and freedom of press are commonly called freedom of expression. This clause is generally understood as prohibiting the government from interfering with the printing and distribution of information or opinions, although freedom of the press, like freedom of speech, is subject to some restrictions, such as defamation law and copyright law. The Constitutions framers provided the press with broad freedom. This freedom was considered necessary to the establishment of a strong, independent press sometimes called the fourth branch of the government. An independent press can provide citizens with a variety of information and opinions on matters of public importance. However, freedom of press sometimes collides with other rights, such as a defendants right to a fair trial or a citizens right to privacy. In recent years, there has been increasing concern about extremely aggressive journalism, including stories about peoples sexual lives and photographs of people when they were in a private setting. The framers conception of freedom of the press has been the subject of intense historical debate, both among scholars and in the pages of judicial opinions. At the very least, those who drafted and ratified the Bill of Rights purported to embrace the notion, derived from William Blackstone, that a free press may not be licensed by the sovereign, or otherwise restrained in advance of publication. And, although the subject remains a lively topic of academic debate, the Supreme Court itself reviewed the historical record in 1964 in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and concluded that the central meaning of the First Amendment embraces as well a rejection of the law of seditious libel i. e. , the power of the sovereign to impose subsequent punishments, from imprisonment to criminal fines to civil damages, on those who criticize the state and its officials. To a great extent, however, what we mean by freedom of the press today was shaped in an extraordinary era of Supreme Court decision-making that began with Sullivan and concluded in 1991 with Cohen v. Cowles Media Co. During that remarkable period, the Court ruled in at least 40 cases involving the press and fleshed out the skeleton of freedoms addressed only rarely in prior cases. In contrast, although the Court in the early part of the last century had considered the First Amendment claims of political dissidents with some frequency, it took nearly 150 years after the adoption of the Bill of Rights, and the First Amendment along with it, for the Court to issue its first decision based squarely on the freedom of the press. Over the course of the quarter-century following Sullivan, the Court made it its business to explore the ramifications of the case on a virtually annual basis. During that period, the Supreme Courts elaboration of what we mean by a free press focused on the nature of the official restraint alleged to compromise that freedom as well as the extent to which the First Amendment protects the press from a given species of governmental action or inaction. Thus, in cases such as Near and the Pentagon Papers case (1971s New York Times Co. v. United States), the Court established that freedom of the press from previous restraints on publication is nearly absolute, encompassing the right to publish information that a president concluded would harm the national security, if not the movements of troopships at sea in time of war. In 1974s Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo, the Court embraced the analogous proposition that the government has virtually no power to compel the press to publish that which it would prefer to leave on the proverbial cutting room floor. In that regard, however, it must be noted that not all media are created equal when it comes to entitlement to the full protections of the First Amendments press clause. Most significantly, because of a perceived scarcity of the electromagnetic spectrum, the Court has held that Congress and the Federal Communications Commission may regulate the activities of broadcasters operating over public airwaves in a manner that would surely violate the First Amendment if applied to newspapers. (Compare Red Lion Broadcasting v. FCC (1969) with Tornillo. ) The Courts reasoning in Red Lion, in which it upheld the Commissions Fairness Doctrine and personal attack rule i. e. , the right of a person criticized on a broadcast station to respond to such criticism over the same airwaves licensed to that station has never been disavowed, although the justices have expressly declined to extend it to other, later-developed communications media, including cable television (1994s Turner Broadcasting v. FCC) and the Internet (1997s Reno v. ACLU), to which the scarcity rationale for regulation is plainly inapplicable. Sullivan and cases that followed also hold that the First Amendment protects the publication of false information about matters of public concern in a variety of contexts, although with considerably less vigor than it does dissemination of the truth. Even so, public officials and public figures may not recover civil damages for injury to their reputations unless they were the victims of a reckless disregard for truth in the dissemination of a calculated falsehood. Indeed, private persons may not collect civil damages for reputational harm caused by falsehoods relating to a matter of public concern unless the publishers conduct violates a fault-based standard of care. And although expressions of opinion are not always immune from legal sanction, in its 1990 decision in Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co. , the Court held that statements not capable of being proven false, or which reasonable people would not construe as statements of fact at all, but rather as mere rhetorical hyperbole, are absolutely protected by the First Amendment. Indeed, the Court has rejected arguments advanced by the institutional press that, because of its structural role in ensuring the free flow of information in a democratic society, it ought to enjoy unique protections from otherwise generally applicable laws that inhibit its ability to gather and report the news. Thus, in 1991 in Cohen v. Cowles Media Co. , the Court effectively concluded the treatise on the freedom of the press it began in Sullivan; it did so when it emphasized that the press is properly subject to liability under the generally applicable law of contracts when it breaks a promise to keep a sources identity confidential, even when it does so in order to report truthful information about the sources involvement in a matter of public concern. In the decade following Cohen, the Court again fell largely silent when it came to the First Amendments application to the institutional press. As the 21st century dawned, however, the Court interrupted that silence, at least briefly, to revisit the extent to which a generally applicable law such as the federal wiretap statute can constitutionally impose criminal penalties and civil liability on the dissemination by the press of the contents of unlawfully recorded telephone conversations, at least when the information so disseminated is the truth about a matter of public concern. While it is undeniable fact that freedom of press is essential ingredient of democracy, it does not mean it will advance the goals of democracy. A free press plays a key role in sustaining and monitoring a healthy democracy, as well as in contributing to greater accountability, good government, and economic development. Most importantly, restrictions on media are often an early indicator that governments intend to assault other democratic institutions. According to the Freedom of the Press index, only 14. 5 percent of the worlds citizens live in countries that enjoy a free press. In the rest of the world, governments as well as non-state actors control the viewpoints that reach citizens and brutally repress independent voices who aim to promote accountability, good

My mother bore me in the southern wild Essay Example

My mother bore me in the southern wild Essay My mother bore me in the southern wild, And I am black, but O! my soul is white; The little black boy has internalised conventional messages about black and white. The second line indicates that he has learned societys message that white means good and innocent. White as an angel is the English child, We will write a custom essay sample on My mother bore me in the southern wild specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on My mother bore me in the southern wild specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on My mother bore me in the southern wild specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer But I am black as if bereavd of light. The third and fourth lines re-instate that he shares societys view that it is heavenly to be white; angels are close to god. Her feels like he has been given a harder lot in life in being black, that he has been denied the light of God. 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: The illustration from the first plate shows the African mother explaining to her son, presumably already a slave; it is of innocence. The mother teaches the son to look ahead to a world to come rather than trying to transform this world through vision. Look on the rising sun: there God does live And gives his light, and gives his heat away. With the light and warmth being given to the white man, thus making it appear as though God favours him. And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive Comfort in morning, joy in the noon day. And we are put on earth a little space, That we may learn to bear the beams of love: And these black bodies and this sunburnt face Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove For when our souls have learned the heat to bear The cloud will vanish; we shall hear his voice, Saying: Come out from the grove, my love ; care, And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice. The childs mother consoles him with a vision of a better life to come, away from the prejudices and hardship of life, and the child accepts this, encouraging him to a further vision of leading rather than being led by the little white English boy to God and Heaven. The mothers teaching may itself be a form of innocence, and the boys vision of Heaven, transcending the divisions of race, is certainly innocent. The boy speaks from innocence and is comforted by his answer to his question, that there is a reason God gave the black boy a harder lot in life, that he has a mission to shade the English boy from the harsh rays of the sun. Thus did my mother say and kissed me: And thus I say to little English boy; When I from black and he from white cloud free, And round the tent of God like lambs we joy, The mother and chills view their present, earthly state as something negative, something un-divine which simply must be endured, while they look forward to the infinity in the future and divinity in the mysterious God who exists, what seems, light years away. The child accepts his mothers argument that earthly life is a life of acute suffering. Nonetheless, the mothers lesson to her son is different from what her son learns. He prophesises a time of harmony, when the spiritually superior black boy will have taught the white boy the ways of spiritual love. Blake systematically presents the speech of children as being characterised by compiled conjunctions. The mother and child in The Little Black Boy use just such speech, implicating both mother and son in using childish language to construct a wilfully, wishfully alternative version of reality. The understanding that Blake advocates here is extremely hopeful and is wholly an acceptance based in the heavenly sphere: only When I from black and he from white cloud free. Even the little boy listening to his mother seems to recognise that only in heaven, only when our souls have learned the heat to bear and God lets the cloud vanish will this sort of equality take place. Ill shade him from the heat, till he can bear To lean in joy upon our fathers knee: And then Ill stand and stroke his silver hair, And be like him and he will love me. The poems ending, in which the little black boy takes his mothers message of spiritual superiority and envisions himself helping the inferior white boy, as suggesting that the black boy has both accepted the mothers lesson and repudiated it, by using it, inappropriately, to cope with the problem it was intended to transcend. The Little Black Boy is a poem that is not about innocence, but about a deluded and self-deluding innocence that refuses to face its pain, and in doing so enacts hypocrisies attributed to Experience. The Little Black Boy is an excellent example of how the engraved images subtly change the meaning of the poem to expose the ugliness the poem implies, making it one of the most deliberately misleading and ironic of all Blakes lyrics. The illustration from the second plate shows the little black boys idea of heaven, in which he and the English boy will be free of the shade or shadow of colour and will both equally enjoy Gods presence. In the illustration, though, in contrast to the boys words, the little white boy seems to have all of Gods attention, while the little black boy is once again off to the side looking on, in a secondary or serving position. The last two lines talk of a heaven where the boy is free of the shade of colour, that in heaven, where he and the English boy stand and stroke his silver hair / And be like him and he will love me. Does he mean God, or the little English boy, or both? And dont these lines present a picture of Gods love as conditional (he will love me when I am like him, i.e. white) rather than unconditional? And what of the fact that the illustration seems to contrast with the words of the poem the two boys seem to have different coloured skin even in heaven, and only the white b oy seems close enough to stroke Gods hair? The first plate illustrates the state of innocence, the second, of experience. The characteristics of the second plates drawings are found nowhere else in the Songs of Innocence. For example, the rooted tree and muddy water which is said to represent repression and mans fallen state respectively. The Christ figure, which has been identified as the Creeping Jesus, is the Christ of the church, of institutionalised religion. Some believe The Little Black Boy proves Blake to be a racist. Are we to infer that he thought the black or white race superior? Either inference can be forced out of the details of the picture and poem. The poem to most appears to be a simple piece, free from any anxiety or tension, that of innocence, but with further study one realises that it is indeed a complex work resistant to definite interpretation.