The schoolboy

Question 1

What does the schoolboy criticise?

Answer 1

The repressive education system of the time

Question 2

What is contrasted throughout the poem?

Answer 2

The freedom of nature, “Summer”, “sing”, “sweet” with the stifiling and repressive atmosphere of the classroom, “sighing”, “dismay”, “drooping”, “anxious”.

Question 3

Who is the speaker?

Answer 3

A child who expresses his love for the natural world and his aversion to being confined in school

Question 4

Context: education system

Answer 4

The schoolboy reflects the growing criticism of traditional education methods in the late 18th century and early 19th century. Many writers and educators were advocating for a more progressive and child-centred approach to learning.

Question 5

What does the poem highlight?

Answer 5

The damaging effects of a rigid education system on the natural curiosity and creativity of children

Question 6

What is the Rhyme scheme of ‘The schoolboy’?

Answer 6

ABABB - musical and songlike - childlike exuberance

Question 7

What does the bird/pastoral imagery symbolise?

Answer 7

the rural setting and the pastoral landscape

Question 8

What does the poem seem like an appeal of?

Answer 8

from the heart against the imposition of unnecessary and unnatural leaning

Question 9

“oh! it drives all joy away”

Answer 9

He has the desire to play but the education system does not allow this. Exclamation emphasises this

Question 10

What did Blake view formal education as?

Answer 10

not as an advantage but rather as damming up of the souls creative spirit, being at school takes away real education that can be provided by roaming in nature, “not sit in learning bower/worn thru with the dreary shower”

Question 11

“not sit in learning bower/worn thru with the dreary shower”

Answer 11

Metaphor: Shower is not refreshing ‘spring shower’ but rather the dull drizzle of unexplained work that is constantly thrown upon you in the education system.
Bower = pleasant shady spot
‘Dreary’ = adjective
The atmosphere of schools has ruined learning for the boy, he wants to learn however school has made it become something he can no longer stand

Question 12

Summarise the poem

Answer 12

Outside on a summer morning all nature is joyful. A schoolboy is caged in his classroom and misses the freedom of the natural world outside.

Question 13

‘Bird’ and ‘Huntsman’

Answer 13

The ‘bird’ could represent nature or possible the childs creativity , and the ‘huntsman’ could represent the education system, creating the idea that the educational system is slowly killing the creativity of the children.

Question 14

How does blake use language in ‘The schoolboy’

Answer 14

He uses language to juxtapose the freedom and innocence of nature with constraints of a school room. The outdoor world of sunshine and freedom and the indoor (classroom) world of discipline and confinement

Question 15

“Summer”, “sing”, “sweet” and “sighing”, “dismay”, “drooping”, “anxious”.

Answer 15

The outdoor world of nature, pastoral imagery, contrasted with the world of education and saddness

Question 16

“Blossoms blown away”
“tender plants are stripped”
“springing day”
“summer fruits”

Answer 16

Images used to connect the boy with the natural world suggesting nature is an integral part of a child joy and happiness, and also growth.

Question 17

List the main themes of ‘The schoolboy’

Answer 17

• Childhood
• Nature
• Freedom vs captivity
• Education

Question 18

What viewpoint does the poem express?

Answer 18

disillusion that one associates with scepticism or cynicism of Experince. However, the poem was originally a poem in innocence. The poem expresses the childs view who beleives the he might be becoming embittered under the educational system

Question 19

What does the boy believe about school?

Answer 19

That it does not teach him real understanding and freedom of the world but rather presumed necessities of life.

Question 20

“or” “or” “or”

Answer 20

Repetition - drives home speakers frustration with school

Question 21

“cruel eye”

Answer 21

Teachers eye is harsh and unpleasant, but it also creates the image of an all-seeing eye that captures every move and doesn’t allow any freedom

Question 22

“Nor in my book can i take delight”

Answer 22

Blake is not sating books are dry and discouraging, but rather that the circumstance’s under which the schoolboy is required to read his book (control/constraint) are damaging on a child learning.

Question 23

“rise in a summer morn”

Answer 23

The boy remembers what it was like in summer without constraint, but this memory, combined with his present experience of school and of rule and regulation makes him more miserable and more certain that he is wasting away the brief spring/summer.

Question 24

“But droop his tender wing/ and forget his youthful spring”

Answer 24

Rhetorical question/ metaphor - the child is like a bird, he will forgot how to fly (nature) when trapped (in education) - this creates the idea that if the boy is trapped in this system for too long he will start to forget the joys of freedom and nature

Question 25

What was Blake committed to?

Answer 25

Books being visual and verbal works - made it easier for the majority of people to access

Question 26

What was Blake at odds with?

Answer 26

Conventional ways of publishing books, he believed there were liberating books that serve liberating functions, but that there were also books that made reading hard and daunting.

Question 27

What do the rhetorical questions throughout ‘The schoolboy’ Imply?

Answer 27

That there is no way to feel free when you are suppressed in the education system - the boy compares himself to a bird in a cage: a free spirit who feels trapped

Question 28

What poems can you compare ‘The schoolboy’ to?

Answer 28

• Spring: innocence of childhood in conjunction with natural world
• The little girl lost: innocent child discovers natural world
• The little boy lost: Explores vulnerability of a child deserted by his father