The School Boy
The School Boy - context Summary
Published in Songs of Experience
Published in 1789 within Songs of Experience, Blake’s "The School Boy" critiques contemporary education by contrasting a child’s natural pleasure with the institutional suppression of joy and creativity. Drawing on Blake’s own objections to rigid schooling, the poem frames childhood as seasonal vitality stifled by fear and discipline. It links personal harm to broader cultural loss, asking how a stunted youth can later contribute to a flourishing society.
Read Complete AnalysesI love to rise in a summer morn, When the birds sing on every tree; The distant huntsman winds his horn, And the sky-lark 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 learnings bower, Worn thro' 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 & mother. if buds are nip'd, And blossoms blown away, And if the tender plants are strip'd 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.
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