Lyric Poem · Nature
The Schoolboy
1I love to rise on a summer morn,
2 When birds are singing on every tree;
3The distant huntsman winds his horn,
4 And the skylark sings with me:
5 Oh what sweet company!
6But to go to school in a summer morn, —
7 Oh it drives all joy away!
8Under a cruel eye outworn,
9 The little ones spend the day
10 In sighing and dismay.
11Ah then at times I drooping sit,
12 And spend many an anxious hour;
13Nor in my book can I take delight,
14 Nor sit in learning's bower,
15 Worn through with the dreary shower.
16How can the bird that is born for joy
17 Sit in a cage and sing?
18How can a child, when fears annoy,
19 But droop his tender wing,
20 And forget his youthful spring?
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“The Schoolboy” by William Blake — quilloak.com/poems/the-schoolboy
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Schoolboy
- Poet
- William Blake
- Length
- 30 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature, Summer, Winter
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 30 lines · 6 quintains
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- William Blake1757–1827
- Source record
- PoetryDBThe Schoolboy by william-blake, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 82ea1db51f10468a…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.