An Analysis of Blakes The School Boy Essay -- Blake The School Boy

An Analysis of Blakes The inculcate Boy The School Boy is a typical example of Blakes Songs of white and Songs of father in its themes and imagery. Like many of the other poems in this work it deals with childishness and the subjugation of its spirit and uses imagery from the natural world. While first publish in 1789 as one of the Songs of whiteness there are sanitary reasons why Blake moved it to the check1 section of the 1794 edition. If we compare it to other poems in the arrangement it sits better with others in take in than those in Innocence. On first interpreting The School Boy is the voice of a young boy complaining of world shut inside at his schoolwork instead of playing out-of-door in the sun. When we look at the poem further we can unwrap that the poet is returning to the theme of childhood subjugated and its natural joy done for(p) that can be seen in other poems in the collection much(prenominal) as The Chimney Sweeper in Experience with its comparis on of the child who was happy on the heath to now Crying weep weep in notes of woe . The poem begins in Stanza I with the poet giving us a pastoral image of the innocence of genius reminiscent of that in The Introduction from Innocence, some critics have pointed out the similarity of The deep huntsman winds his horn in this poem with Piping down the valleys wild in The Introduction of Innocence2 . The poem gives us an image of rising with the company of many natural joys, not on the dot the huntsman but birds sing on every tree and the sky-lark sings with me. It is in Stanza II that we see the oppression of the natural by authority typical of Experience and continued through the rest of the poem. This stanza compares the pastoral imagery... ...glewood Cliffs Prentice-Hall, 1966. Hyland, Dominic, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Harlow Longman York Press, 1982. Notes To avoid disarray between the 1789 edition Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Innocence section of t he 1794 combined edition I have shortened the section names to Innocence and Experience throughout and refer to the 1789 edition as Songs of Innocence and the 1794 edition Songs Of Innocence and Of Experience as the 1794 edition where it is necessary to draw a distinction. peerless example is found in D. Hyland, William Blake Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience (Harlow Longman York Press, 1982), p. 48 William Blake, Songs Of Innocence and Of Experience, (London Rupert Hart Davis, 1967) plate 53 . D. Hyland, William Blake Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience (Harlow Longman York Press, 1982), p. 48