[TCA-Asyn-Sep] ENG3U ...

In this activity you’ll read and re-read a poem The School Boy by another British poet William Blake (1757-1827). He was also a painter of dark and frightening subjects like monsters and devils. If you’re interested in art and painting you can search William Blake, painter online.

Write down in a few simple sentences what you believe a theme of this poem to be. There are actually several possible themes

Include two or more pieces of evidence from the poem to support your theme.

The goal of the activity is to come to a conclusion on what the theme or themes might be.

Submission: PDF format. (Your file can't be more than 20 MB)

The School Boy

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?