Another critique of human societal restrictions on the nature-loving human spirit, this poem is less harsh and more playful than most of Blake’s other such works. The boy loves “to rise in a summer morn, /when the birds sing on every tree.” He enjoys nature in its entire splendor, “But to go to school in a summer morn, /O! It drives all joy away.” The boy longs for the freedom of the outdoors and cannot “take delight” in his book. He asks, “How can the birds that is born for joy, /Sit in a cage and sing.” His youth and innocence are suited to playing in the summertime fields, not to sitting captive to a dreary educational system.

THE SCHOOL BOY

"The School-Boy" is a six-stanza poem of five lines each. Each stanza follows an ABABB rhyme scheme, with the first two stanzas using the same word "morn" to rhyme in the first lines. The repetition of the word “morn” as well as similarly low-sounding words such as "outworn," "bower," "dismay," and "destroy" lend the poem a bleak tone in keeping with the school-boy's attitude at being trapped inside at school rather than being allowed to move freely about the countryside on this fine summer day.

Blake suggests that the educational system of his day destroys the joyful innocence of youth; Blake himself was largely self-educated and did not endure the drudgery of the classroom as a child. Again, the poet wishes his readers to see the difference between the freedom of imagination offered by close contact with nature, and the repression of the soul caused by Reason’s demands for a so-called education.

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827)

was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely

unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake is now

considered a seminal figure in the history of both the

poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His

prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in

proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in

the English language". His visual artistry has led one

contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the

greatest artist Britain has ever produced". Although he

lived in London his entire life except for three years

spent in Felltham he produced a diverse and

symbolically rich corpus, which embraced the

imagination as "the body of God", or

"Human existence itself".

Considered mad by contemporaries

for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is

held in high regard by later critics for

his expressiveness and creativity, and

for the philosophical and mystical

undercurrents within his work. His

paintings and poetry have been

characterized as part of both the

Romantic Movement and "Pre-

Romantic", for its large appearance in

the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the Church of

England – indeed, to all forms of organized religion –

Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of

the French and American revolutions, as well as by

such thinkers as Jacob Bohme and Emanuel

Swedenborg. Despite these known influences, the

singularity of Blake's work makes him difficult to

classify. The 19th-century scholar William Rossetti

characterized Blake as a "glorious luminary," and as

"a man not forestalled by predecessors, or to be

classed with contemporaries, or to be replaced by known or readily survivable successors".