William Blake: The Schoolboy Monday 3rd October 2016

Blake’s educational and social beliefs. Born in 1757 in Soho, London, Blake had a unique upbringing. He only briefly attended school as he was primarily home schooled by his mother. Blake believed that the human spirit was corrupted by modern society, in particular the innocence and freedom of childhood was destroyed by the chaos of adult life.

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! But to go to school in a summer morn, — O it drives all joy away! Under a cruel eye outworn, The little ones spend the day In sighing and dismay. 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 through with the dreary shower. 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! O father and mother if buds are nipped, And blossoms blown away; And if the tender plants are stripped Of their joy in the springing day, By sorrow and care’s dismay, — How shall the summer arise in joy, Or the summer fruits appear? Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy, Or bless the mellowing year, When the blasts of winter appear? In his Life of William Blake (1863) Alexander Gilchrist warned his readers that Blake "neither wrote nor drew for the many, hardly for work'y-day men at all, rather for children and angels; himself 'a divine child,' whose playthings were sun, moon, and stars, the heavens and the earth." Yet Blake himself believed that his writings were of national importance and that they could be understood by a majority of men. Far from being an isolated mystic, Blake lived and worked in the teeming metropolis of London at a time of great social and political change that profoundly influenced his writing. Blake worked to bring about a change both in the social order and in the minds of men. By all accounts Blake had a pleasant and peaceful childhood, made even more pleasant by his skipping any formal schooling. As a young boy he wandered the streets of London and could easily escape to the surrounding countryside. Even at an early age, however, his unique mental powers would prove disquieting. According to Gilchrist, on one ramble he was startled to "see a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars." His parents were not amused at such a story, and only his mother's pleadings prevented him from receiving a beating.

Summary In this poem, as in many from ‘Songs of Experience’ Blake explores the effects of human societal restrictions on the nature- loving human spirit, but 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 all its splendour, “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 bird 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.

I love to rise in a summer morn, When the birds sing on every tree; References to nature/lexical field Declarative sentence mood Abstract noun Romanticism 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! Connectives Pre-modifying adjectives Sibilant alliteration

But to go to school in a summer morn, — O it drives all joy away! Foregrounded conjunction Pre-modifiers Contrasts with the schoolboy in stanza 1 But to go to school in a summer morn, — O it drives all joy away! Under a cruel eye outworn, The little ones spend the day In sighing and dismay. Exclamative sentence mood Forceful and dynamic verb Abstract noun End focus

Education in Blake’s time Contextual link Education in Blake’s time Repetition Pre-modifiers 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 through with the dreary shower. Changes in metre Metaphor

How can the bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing? Interrogative sentence mood Alliteration 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! Denotation & connotation Pre-modifiers

O father and mother if buds are nipped, And blossoms blown away; Abstract noun Metaphor O father and mother if buds are nipped, And blossoms blown away; And if the tender plants are stripped Of their joy in the springing day, By sorrow and care’s dismay, — Pre-modifiers End focus

How shall the summer arise in joy, Or the summer fruits appear? Foregrounded conjunction / repetition Metaphor Dynamic verb How shall the summer arise in joy, Or the summer fruits appear? Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy, Or bless the mellowing year, When the blasts of winter appear? Metaphor Interrogative sentence mood

What the poet is telling us … Form and structure Grammar and syntax Lexis and imagery Phonology What the poet is telling us … (themes, tone, character/narrator)

The Schoolboy, written by William Blake, is an exploration of the negative impact that school has on a young, free spirited schoolboy. Interestingly, Blake himself did not attend school; he was home schooled by his mother for the vast majority of his educational life. In his poems he expresses the idea that adult life is chaotic and does nothing but supress the youthful innocence of childhood. The poem’s first stanza is dominated by declarative sentence mood, with the schoolboy telling us “I love to rise in the summer morn.” The use of the first person pronoun here clearly establishes the schoolboy’s point of view, he feels at home in natural surroundings. This is further emphasised by the lexical field of nature being present in the opening stanza; the schoolboy makes clear reference to “birds” singing, “the distant huntsman” and the “skylark” singing. Blake’s own upbringing featured many days of countryside walks (most when he should have been in school), so it is evident here that the schoolboy’s narrative voice and linguistic choices echo Blake’s own personal point of view.

The second stanza opens with the foregrounded conjunction “But” which instantly tells us that this stanza will differ in tone and ideas from the opening stanza. The use of… The forceful and dynamic verb “… The last line of the stanza uses end focus on the word “dismay”… The change in Blake’s language in the third stanza highlights… Continue your analysis of the poem, focusing on the ideas on your notes sheet (use the cone!).