3. Introduction

"The School Boy" is a poem written by William Blake. It was first published in \(1789\) in his collection "Songs of Experience". Blake later combined these poems with his "Songs of Innocence" in a book titled "Songs of Innocence and Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul".

The poem is divided into six stanzas with five lines each. While the original poem contains 30 lines, the prescribed one is short of the final three lines. Hence, the last stanza of the prescribed poem is made up of two lines instead of the actual five lines. You can read the complete poem here.

 

In the poem, a young boy can be seen expressing his dislike towards going to school. However, it is not the idea of learning that the kid dislikes but rather the limitations of formal education. The downside of a classroom education also becomes the central theme of the poem.