The School Boy
The school boy in the poem is not a happy child. What make him unhappy? Why does he compare himself to a bird that live in a cage, or a plant that withers when it should blossom.
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 learnings bower.
Worn thro' 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.