Question

Analysis of the poem “The School Boy”.

Answer 1

Hint: "The School Boy," a pastoral poem, explores the drawbacks of conventional schooling. Going to school on a summer day, it argues, "takes away all joy." This child is more worried about leaving his school than about learning from his teacher in this poem.

Complete answer:
‘The School Boy' focuses on a subject that was often dear to his heart: the lives of children, especially the inequitable treatment they receive from society. In earlier poems, such as ‘The Chimney-Sweeper' and ‘The Little Black Boy,' Blake attacked child labour and racial discrimination, but in ‘The School Boy,' Blake attacks the school. Of fact, he is criticising the rigid and lifeless – and joyless – the manner in which children are educated, not the concept of education itself.

Blake brings attention to such unfairness in his poem "The School Boy." As a last point of the study, the usage of environmental images throughout ‘The School Boy' is worth mentioning. From the first stanza's birdsong to the poem's extended summer metaphor, 'The School Boy' reminds us that William Blake was a Romantic poet who, like his near-contemporaries Wordsworth and Coleridge, believed that the natural world, and the freedom it afforded the child, could be a formative influence.

An unhappy high school kid is the subject of the poem. He prefers summer mornings and enjoys observing the trees and birds. Mornings are full of hopes and dreams, as we all know. The distant sound of the huntsman's horn soothes him. He'd also want to sing with the skylark. In a word, he likes spending time in nature. In the name of education and teaching, he claims, his youth was wrecked. The child likes mornings, trees, and birds, among other things. He enjoys being outside in nature. As a result of his schooling, his mornings, on the other hand, are dark and dreary. He despises going to school and has no desire to study or read.

Parents should not deny their children of the joy and freedom to which they are entitled, according to the poet. If our children are unhappy, our world will be filled with sorrow. We shall never be able to feel happiness.

Note: According to the poem, as parents, we must keep an eye on our children. The major topic of the poem is the boy's dissatisfaction with having to go to school when he wants to enjoy the summer. It is our responsibility to give our children a healthy, happy, and free environment. If we want our future generations to be happy and wealthy, we must ensure that they have a happy and prosperous childhood.