The School Boy by William Blake

WILLIAM BLAKE:- 

~• William Blake (1757-1827) was an English poet and painter.

~• Blake is a seminal figure in the history of both poetry and visual arts of the romantic age.

~• His prophetic poetry owes its origins to the fact that tradition and materialism did not influence his vision.

~• He was considered one of the leaders of modern anarchism.

~• Some of his well known works include song of Innocence and experience, Gates of Paradise, Marriage of Heaven and Hell, America, The French Revolution, Jerusalem and Milton.

~•••~THE SCHOOL BOY~•••~

I love to rise in a summer morn,

When the birds sing on every tree;

The distant huntsman winds his horn,

And the skylark sings with me:

O what sweet company!

But to go to school in a summer morn, -

O it drives all joy away!

Under a cruel eye outworn,

The little ones spend the day

In sighing and dismay.

Ah then at times I drooping sit,

And spend many an anxious hour;

Nor in my book can I take delight,

Nor sit in learning's bower,

Worn through with the dreary shower.

How can the bird that is born for joy

Sit in a cage and sing?

How can a child, when fears annoy,

But droop his tender wing,

And forget his youthful spring!

O father and mother if buds are nipped,

And blossoms blown away;

And if the tender plants are stripped

Of their joy in the springing day,

By sorrow and care's dismay, -

How shall the summer arise in joy,

Or the summer fruits appear?

Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy,

Or bless the mellowing year,

When the blasts of winter appear?

ABOUT THE POEM:-

~• The School boy is a romantic poem because it paints a perfect image of nature.

~• The school boy believes that school is negatively impacting on him due to strict rules and limitations in a classroom.

~• It considered how going to school on a Summer Day 'drives all Joy away.'

~• The child in this poem is very beautifully give reasons why I do not like going to school.

ELABORATION OF THE POEM:-

~• I love getting up early in the morning in the summer.

~• And whenever I wake up in the morning, there is a bird singing on every tree.

~• And somewhere Huntsman are playing their horn.

~• And skylark is singing with me.

~• And from all this I feel very good company.

~• But now I have to go to school on this summer morning.

~• This took away all my happiness.

~• I have to spend my whole day with sighing and dismay only under the cruel eyes of the teachers.

~• I am just sitting in and waiting for the time there.

~• Now I do not get any pleasure in books.

~• Now I feel like the dreary shower of teacher's speech.

~• A bird is born to sing songs in happiness.

~• But how can you say it to sing the song by imprisoning him.

~• How a child can fly by his wings in a scary environment. 

~• O mother and father! If birds were nipped then how will the flower be blown?

~• If blossoms are blown, where will the cherries rise from?

~• If we stripped the tender plants, how will they grow?

~• You have left them in a time of utter sorrow. 

~• If all this happens, happiness that will get up in the summer will end.

~• And how does the energy come after summer?

~• Thus how the plants would be able to get the fruit which has been destroyed.

~• How can the summer be blessing when the blasts of winter appear.

CONCLUSION:-

~• School boy compares the children with the spring plants which have been destroyed.

~• According to him, like the flowers, the children too need freedom for efficient growth.

~• If there freedom is snatched away and their joy-buds are cut off because off Schools.

~• They will never be able to get properly educated and hence serve the society.

~• The poem is thus a criticism on the way the schools impart education.