Poetic Analysis of the Schoolboy – SS1 Literature-in-English Lesson Note (Third Term)

“The Schoolboy” is a poem by William Blake in which a young boy contrasts the joy of a summer morning with the misery of school.

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. Explain what happens in each of the six stanzas of “The Schoolboy”.
2. Describe the boy’s attitude to summer and to school.
3. Explain the image of the bird in a cage.
4. Identify the main poetic devices, tone and mood of the poem.
5. State the main theme and lessons of the poem.

What is “The Schoolboy” about?

The poem is a boy’s complaint that strict schooling robs children of the joy of childhood.

• Poet: William Blake, an English Romantic poet.
• Collection: the poem comes from Blake’s Songs of Experience.
• Speaker: a young schoolboy who speaks in the first person.
• Setting: a summer morning in the countryside, then the boy’s classroom.
• Subject: the clash between the freedom of nature and the strict discipline of school.
• Form: six short stanzas, so the poem is easy to follow and to remember.

What does each stanza of “The Schoolboy” say?

Each of the six stanzas adds one step to the boy’s argument, from joy in summer to a warning about the future.

Stanza 1: the joy of a summer morning

• Speaker: the boy says he loves to rise early on a summer morning.
• Birds: they sing on every tree and announce the new day.
• Huntsman: he blows his horn from a distant field.
• Skylark: it sings along with the boy and keeps him company.
• Mood: happy, free and full of life.

Stanza 2: school drives the joy away

• Contrast: going to school on a summer morning drives all joy away.
• Cruel eye: in “Under a cruel eye outworn”, the teacher watches the pupils with a harsh, tired gaze.
• Pupils: the “little ones” spend the day sighing and in dismay.
• Complaint: compulsory schooling replaces the pleasure of summer with boredom.

Stanza 3: weariness in class

• Drooping: the boy sits drooping and spends many anxious hours.
• No delight: he cannot enjoy his book or sit happily in “learning’s bower”.
• Dreary shower: the dull lessons fall on him like heavy rain and wear him out.
• Bower: a bower is a pleasant, leafy shelter, so learning should be a pleasant place.
• Teacher: the harsh teacher ignores the boy’s wish for freedom.

Stanza 4: the bird in a cage

• Question: how can a bird born for joy sit in a cage and sing?
• Comparison: a child under fear and tension cannot enjoy natural joy and play.
• Drooping wing: the child droops his tender wing, like a bird that cannot fly.
• Youthful spring: strict control makes the child forget the precious days of youth.

Stanza 5: the appeal to parents

• Address: the boy speaks to his father and mother.
• Buds and blossoms: they stand for children, nipped and blown away too early.
• Tender plants: they are stripped of joy by sorrow and care.
• Message: a child who suffers early in life cannot grow happily.

Stanza 6: the warning about the future

• Question: how shall the summer arise in joy, or the summer fruits appear?
• Grief: the boy asks how anyone can gather what grief has destroyed.
• Mellowing year: this is autumn, the season of ripe fruit and harvest.
• Meaning: if childhood joys are cut short, adult life will be drab and fruitless.

What are the main images in “The Schoolboy”?

The poem uses images from nature to stand for childhood, school and adult life.

• Summer morning: freedom, happiness and the natural joy of childhood.
• Skylark and birds: natural, free song and company.
• Bird in a cage: a child kept under strict control who cannot express joy.
• Buds, blossoms and tender plants: young children who need care and freedom to grow.
• Dreary shower: dull, tiring lessons that weigh the pupil down.
• Mellowing year: adult life, when the fruit of childhood should appear.

How does the summer morning differ from school in the poem?

The summer morning is the boy’s world of freedom, song and play. School is his world of fear, silence and strict rules. The table shows the contrast.

What poetic devices are used in “The Schoolboy”?

The poem uses simple language and a few clear devices to make its protest strong.

• Contrast: joyful summer is set against gloomy school.
• Rhetorical question: “How can the bird that is born for joy sit in a cage and sing?” needs no answer.
• Metaphor: children are buds, blossoms and tender plants.
• Extended image: the cage and the plants carry the argument over several lines.
• Apostrophe: the boy addresses his parents directly, though they are not present in the poem.
• Imagery: pictures of birds, trees, fields and seasons appeal to the senses.
• First-person voice: the boy’s own words make the complaint personal and believable.

What are the tone and mood of “The Schoolboy”?

The tone changes from happy to sad and then to pleading.

• Stanza 1: cheerful and lively.
• Stanzas 2 and 3: sad, bitter and weary.
• Stanzas 4 and 5: questioning and pleading.
• Stanza 6: serious and warning.

What is the theme of “The Schoolboy”?

The main theme is the loss of childhood joy and freedom through harsh, rigid schooling.

• Nature against school: the boy sets the living things of summer against the lifeless setting of his school.
• School as a prison: the teacher’s cruel eye robs him of childhood happiness.
• Creativity: restriction in school hinders natural creativity and genuine self-expression.
• Protest: the poem criticises a system that ignores children’s feelings.
• Future: a joyless childhood leads to a fruitless adult life.

What lessons does “The Schoolboy” teach?

1. Rigid school training kills skill and creativity in a growing child.
2. Parents should relax the rigid control over their children.
3. Adults design formal education without the views of the children who bear its effects, so it should add more leisure.
4. Children need both work and play. As the saying goes, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Evaluation

1. Describe the boy’s feelings about a summer morning in stanza 1.
2. Why is the boy unhappy about going to school?
3. Explain the comparison between the boy and a bird in a cage.
4. What does the boy mean when he speaks of the “mellowing year” and the failure of summer fruits?
5. State two lessons the poem teaches parents and educators.

Assignment

1. Discuss William Blake’s “The Schoolboy” as a protest poem.