Between Lost and Found
-An analysis on William Blake’s the Little Boy Lost and the Little Boy Found

The Little Boy Lost

"Father, father, where are you going?  
O do not walk so fast                  
Speak father, speak to your little boy 
Or else I shall be lost."               

The night was dark, no father was there,
The child was wet with dew.
The mire was deep, & the child did weep,
And away the vapour flew.

The Little Boy Found

The little boy lost in the lonely fen,   
Led by the wand'ring light,             
Began to cry, but God ever nigh,        
Appeared like his father in white.      

He kissed the child & by the hand led
And to his mother brought,
Who in sorrow pale. thro' the lonely dale
Her little boy weeping sought.

The poems the Little Boy Lost and the little Boy Found were written by William Blake in his Songs of Innocence. Like most of William’s poems in this anthology, these two poems were short in length but rich in religious connotations and mystic ideas. They were therefore representative works of William, which reflect his prophetic Christian visions.

The Little Boy Lost depicts how the little boy got lost from his father. He was walking with his father through marshy land at night. Then he became separated from his father and was obviously in danger. The vapour that provided him with some light also disappeared, and the little boy was left alone and in total darkness. The Little Boy Found one the other hand, is about the finding of the lost boy, who was led by a wandering light. God appeared and took him back to his mother, who was searching for him in a totally wrong direction. That means, she would never find the boy without God’s help.

The boy is portrayed as a “little boy”, who is young, innocent and vulnerable. That gives us a hint that the William Blake is attempting to reveal something with this childish image. In my opinion, William Blake compares humans to the little boy. He reminds us of with the little boy’s calls, “father, father, where are you going? O do not walk so fast.” Are we simply as weak and lost as he is? In times of troubles, or simply in front of the majestic nature, aren’t human beings merely the little boy, weeping helplessly in the darkness, having no idea of where to go? The god is there, loving and caring. He finds the little boy in the mire, comforts him by kissing him, and leads him to the anxious mother, who looks for him in the wrong direction. William Blake seems to tell us that God is always near. He is dependable and trustworthy.
The author uses very simple language to construct the two poems. Both poems are comprised of two equal stanzas of four lines each. This form is often seen in many children's poems and nursery rhymes. No wonder, William wants to tell the child’s tale in a child’s tone. However, the poem does contain complexities and contradictions, as we have seen. It talks about God, and suggests that we are all his children. And at the beginning of “the Little Boy Lost”, the words “father, father” somehow remind me of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven...” (Mathew, 6:9-10, New Testament). Here, the significance of these two poems is much greater than simply a boy’s encounter. It is all the more like a prayer, thanking God for his care of the child.

But if we keep on comparing the two poems, two contradictory visions of fathers can be found. The one in the first poem is stern and cruel. When we do not hear the answer from the father we have been expecting, we are horrified that the father leaves the child. We do not know whether he loses him accidentally in the dark night, or abandons him on purpose, but either way he is not fulfilling his duties as a parent. On contrary, in the second poem, the father figure is kind and loving. He was dressed in white and he kissed the boy, before holding his hand and led him home. How can a father appear in two totally different ways? To answer this, we have to know what the god is like in William’s eyes. In the Old Testament, we see such lines, “The Lord …forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus, 34:6-7) The god is merciful and gracious, but he is not connive with sins. Blake wants us to see God as dependable and trustworthy. However, he is "like his father" - the father who left his own son behind in the "mire", for some reason. We can never perceive the god’s plan, no more than a boy can understand his father’s changing attitude. But one thing can be certain. Whenever things are out of control, someone is out there watching us. The Father will stretch out his had to help us, and lead us out of temptations and evils. At least, that is what William Blake attempts to reveal in his two poems.