Summary and theme of The School Boy by William Blake - HSC English 1st paper

Summary and theme of The School Boy
by William Blake - HSC English 1st paper

I 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.

Theme: The poem “The School Boy” was written by William Blake, it is part of his “Songs of  Innocence” published in 1789. In the poem the poet talks about a child that wakes up in the morning and all the happiness he feels disappears when he realizes that he has to go to school. The main theme is the sorrow that the boy feels having to go to school, when he wants to enjoy summer. He has the obligation to go to a close space, but he wants to go outside. Another theme is nature, the freedom that it represents for the boy and the oppression of the class. This repression is also represented by the boy´s parents who force him to go there. It is written in first person, the word “I” is quite present in the poem and refers to Blake himself.

William Blake, when he wrote the poem as an adult, he still remembered an experience of his childhood. He wrote the poem from a child´s viewpoint. He wrote his child feelings in a summer morning and in a way, he complaint to his parents. Maybe, now he as an adult has voice and he uses it, because if you are a child everybody ignores you.