The School Boy

-William Blake
The poem The School Boy is written by one of the greatest and finest visionary poet in
English literature William Blake. He is considered the senior most and foremost figure in the
field of literature. The big six poets of romantic literature besides William Blake are William
Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, P B Shelly, and John Keats. Each of these
poets stood for certain rules and principles.
William Blake was a visionary poet. At the age of 4 he had the vision of God peeping
through the window of his house. At 10 he had the vision of tree full of angels. Bright wind
angels like stars. He was born in Sohio, he was brought up in a humble family background.
Being the son of Hosier who use to prepare stockings, socks, and other things. He could not
send his son to an expensive school or college. He left school at the age of 10 and joined a
drawing school; unfortunately he couldn't continue his education even there because it
proved too costly for the family. At the age of 14 he became an apprentice to an engraver
called James Basire, with whom he worked for next 7 years. At 21 he joined Royal academy to
learn painting only for a short period of time. At 21 he became independent painter, printer
and engraver.
During his lifetime he was known as an artist more than a poet. He occupies 38th place
in all time great poets of Britain, a survey conducted by BBC. Only after his death he was
presented to the world as a poet. Some of his best books are - The Poetical Sketches, The
marriage of Heaven and Hell, The songs of Innocence, The songs of Experience, The songs of
Loss, The Book of Origin.
He married an illiterate woman Catherine Sophia Boucher, whom he taught how to
read, write, color and paint. She proved to be a valuable, extremely useful and good
companion throughout his life. During his dying days he draw the portrait of his wife and
appreciated her that she was like an angel for him, and also promised that he always would be
there for her and sang a song, breathed last. It was a death of blessed angel. He acknowledged
that his humble upbringing allowed his creativity to flourish. The poem School Boy is a
beautiful testimony to this fact.
The poem was published in 1789 in the collection of poems, Songs of Experience. This
is a poem of 30 lines, 6 stanzas, each stanza having 5 lines. This poem falls into the genre
called Pastoral where most of the incidents mentioned or take place in rural setting. Each
stanza represents nature in vivid forms. The first 3 stanzas of the poem reveal likes and
dislikes of the School Boy, while the next 3 stanzas pose 7 questions asked to his parents and
to the entire world.
 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!

It is clear that, The School Boy the great lover of nature. His true self is introduced in the
very first stanza. He loves to rise at the peep of day on summer mornings. He likes to listen to
the sweet sound of birds that sing from each and every branch of trees. Even the distant
huntsman's horn is very pleasing to his ears, when the Skylark bird starts singing he too feels
like singing. He thinks that Skylark waits for him and sings with him. No doubt he enjoys the
sweet company of nature.

He is attracted by the beauty of nature. He cannot sit at home or sleep for long hours
even after daybreak. He loves to rise early, when the birds get up and fly all over. He easily
connects himself with the nature, the song of birds, the distant huntsman's horn, the trees and
the school boy tuned into one. He feels as if he is part of divine nature. He wants to get lost in
that world of enchantment. How sensitive the school boy he is. He forgets himself as well as
the world. The boy represents all the children here, who easily tuned to the nature. They are
high priests of nature like Wordsworth and then the elders. Wordsworth calls Children, "The
child is father of man".
But to go to school on a summer morn,
O! it drives all joy away;
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.

In the second stanza see the plight of the boy who has-been enjoying the company
nature, but all of a sudden he is pulled down and covers the artificial world of human beings.
He cannot tolerate this attack. He was concentrating the music of nature while elders, parents’
teachers want him to be in the school classroom.

The thought of going to school drives his joy away. The humble love and relationship
between him and Mother Nature is cut down mercilessly. That's why the free flying soul of
child that has been slipping. Sweet nectar, the music of nature refuses to step into the world
of mere mortal the teacher with flesh and blood and things like desks, benches and chalk
pieces.
 He calls the eyes of teachers cruel outworn. It literally means out of date, exhausted,
but they appeared cruel to the boy because they impart no love affection, there is no warmth
in it. That's why he feels the eyes of teachers’ outworn, outdated, cruel one.
Observe, the phrase little ones, now he is not talking about himself, he is talking about
his classmates who are with him. Their plight is like him only. They are also sad, dull. The two
words sighing and dismay clearly reveal that helplessness of the students. Dismay expression
implies that the boy sitting in class disheartened, dispirited.
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 thro’ with the dreary shower.

The School Boy sits in the classroom losing all enthusiasm, disheartened, dispirited, and
dropping his shoulder on the desk. There is discouragement. The classroom is creating anxiety
in him, that too not for short duration but it extend to many many hours till the last bell rings.
The boy is restless because, he doesn't feel and enjoy the way he enjoyed in the nature. The
boy doesn't want to be there with lifeless old furniture, and the authoritarian ways of teaching
of the teachers.
Nor in my book can I take delight - It doesn't mean that boy doesn't love school or
books, but he is made to sit in a particular place which he doesn't like. This shows the boys
token protest against the system of formal schooling.

Nor sit in leaning’s bower - bower literally means a pleasant secured place under shade
of cool trees in a forest. But learning bower is extremely unpleasant because there never
happens real learning. He is never given an opportunity to express himself. There is no mode
of freedom and expression. At School his needs and necessities are not meant. His opinions
are not considered. His ideas find no place. His presence is marginalized. Only the voice of
dictator is heard with cruel eyes. Shower is not of rain or water, it is shower of words,
monotonous continuous incessant shower of words, lectures, lessons, homeworks that is why
it is dreary means tiresome.
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?
 The rebellious spirit of the child finds its tongue and opposes all kinds of oppression. So
far he was silent but now the boy starts attacking the formal system of education. He asks two
questions in the 4th stanza. This stanza is studied with metaphors and figure of speech.
Metaphors-
- bird -born for joy - school boy
- cage - classroom / school / the society.
- tender wing - his imaginations / no scope for his image.
- youthful spring - Childhood - it's state of liveliness, exuberance, vigor, vitality and
split.
The school boy feels that, he is trapped inside a cage. He is forced to go to school and
this act indicates or shows a bird inside the cage. Here bird stands for the boy and the cage
stand for classroom or School. He feels that, he is losing the chance to learn an experience in
the real world, just like a bird can‘t feel happiness inside the cage. He hence, loses his
childhood. His childhood was spent in an artificial environment. He couldn‘t have any sweet
memories of his childhood. The boy feels that he has been caged, he doesn't have freedom.

O! father and mother, if buds are nipp’d

And blossoms blown away,
And if the tender plants are stripp’d
Of their joy in the springing day,
By sorrow and care’s dismay,

The School Boy is specific, directly attacks his parents. The boy complains to the highest
authority that is father and mother. This Formal Education has damaged the child. The
innocence of the child is being taken away. If a budding child picked and knifed in the early
stage of life then their future will be full of sorrows. If no one gives a proper care and freedom
during the childhood, then their childhood never be enjoy full and memorable.
Metaphors -
- bud - the growing child
- blossom - the little, grownup young boy
- plant - college student

All of them are sitting in classroom with sorrow grief and dismay because all joys are
been rubbed up. The School is not finding innate abilities but destroying them. That's why he is
angry with society.
 How shall the summer arise in joy,
Or the summer’s fruits appear?
Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy,
Or bless the mellowing year,
When the blasts of winter appear?

The School Boy protests the whole setup which is rigid. If grief destroys everything that
is beautiful, lovely and sacred, then how can you expect better result or sweet fruits? Are
parents, teachers concerned about the welfare of students? The happiness which the boy got
in summer, spring, autumn is destroyed by this blast of winter (old age) elders, teachers,
parents belong to winter.

If care and concern doesn‘t rule over the plants, flowers and buds then the summer will
be dry and will not bring fruits. The child asked his parents’ ―how they can win back what
grief has destroyed. If the plants are squeezed and withered due to the grief, no fruit will be
there in the season of autumn that is mellowing year. This implies that if childhood pleasure
and joys are censored then the adult life will be utterly dried and unproductive.

The boy feels grief, sorrow because of unpleasant experiences of life. So how can you
expect beautiful song about child whose childhood days are completely rubbed whose joy or
freedom is lost?
The boy stands as representative of all children who suffer in classroom. The poem
begins with I and it concludes with plural pronoun WE. Its comment on atrocity meets it out
towards the children. This conflict never ends.
Here poet is not against the education. He is discouraging Formal Education and
encourages to the Informal Education. According to the poet one should learn through
personal experience, especially in the nature. This Formal Education hinders the child‘s desires
and willingness towards learning. That‘s why poet supports to Informal Education.