William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909.
The School BoyWilliam Blake (17571827)
I
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the sky-lark sings with me.
O! what sweet company.
O! it drives all joy away;
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.
And spend many an anxious hour,
Nor in my book can I take delight,
Nor sit in learning’s bower,
Worn thro’ with the dreary shower.
Sit in a cage and sing;
How can a child, when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring?
And blossoms blown away,
And if the tender plants are strip’d
Of their joy in the springing day,
By sorrow and care’s dismay,
Or the summer fruits appear?
Or how shall we gather what griefs destroys
Or bless the mellowing year,
When the blasts of winter appear?