“The School Boy” is a poem included in William Blake’s collection Songs of Innocence. It is told from the perspective of a young boy going to school on a summer day. The boy loves summer mornings, but to have to go to school when the weather is so nice is a misery to him. He sits at his desk in boredom and cannot pay one iota of attention to the lesson, so desperately does he wish to be playing outside. In the fourth verse, the speaker asks, “How can the bird that is born for joy / Sit in a cage and sing?” Here the poet is comparing young children, so full of energy and happiness, to songbirds, who deserve to tumble free and soar on the winds. But, like songbirds trapped in a cage, children trapped in a classroom cannot express themselves, cannot capitalize on all that excess energy, and therefore their potential is being wasted.
The speaker addresses parents in the final two verses, asking how, “…if buds are nipped / …and if the tender plants are stripped / of their joy...How shall…the summer fruits appear?” That is, if children are stripped of their ability to play and have fun in the summer season, how shall they grow and develop to the fullest extent?
This poem is about allowing children to be children – to run and play outside, to experience the benefits of nature and of the seasons. This practice is equally as beneficial to them as academic learning, and in times such as those in the poem, arguably more so, for on this beautiful summer day the speaker can pay no attention to his lessons – he would rather be outside.
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