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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students

The Schoolboy

William Blake·1757–1827
Lines:30Movement:Romanticism
I love to rise on a summer morn, When birds are singing on every tree;The distant huntsman winds his horn, And the skylark sings with me: Oh what sweet company! But to go to school in a summer morn,-- Oh 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? Oh 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?