"The Schoolboy" ... Explanation

Stanza 1:

 In the first stage, the poet in the persona of a school boy says that on the beautiful summer morning he loves to rise early. During the first blush of the day birds sing on every tree. Their sweet voices in the orb of the day force the persona to rise early. Not only are the birds chirping but the distant sound of the hunter blowing his trumpet can also be heard. The riders blow their bugles early in the summer morning for catching their prey. The persona says that this cheerful scene makes him sing aloud with the pretty skylark.

The summer season in England is very pleasant with singing birds, blooming flowers and the dearest sun shining. The surroundings come to life. As Matthew Arnold says:

“All the live murmur of a summer’s day.”

William is remembered as a great visionary. This stanza represents his vision of a summer morning. How the songs of the birds give him a company of sweetness. This jocund company is what the persona loves and enjoys about the summer morning.

Stanza 2:

 The persona says that the beauty of the summer morning is shattered to pieces by going to school. This thought repels all joy, spoils all fun, chases away all happiness and beats off all merriness. To spend the summer day under the strict supervision of a teacher who is impotent and outwore, is the cruelest thing ever. All the little children spend their day like caged birds- their songs forgotten their minds clouded. They are deprived of the joys of summer and compelled to sit under the cruel eye of the teacher. Their condition is pitiable. The disappointment of the children is evident from their dejected sighing and distress. They feel discouraged and the feeling of defeatism is promoted.

The persona is fed up with the school life and protests against the cruel behavior of teachers. As George Bernard Shaw says:

“There is nothing in Earth intended for innocent people so horrible as School”

The dread of breathing and the dread of being late drive away the high spirits of children.

Stanza 3:

 In this stanza the persona says that at school I sit discouraged and exhausted. Even though it is the season of the bloom, I feel wasted away and in the state of decline. I spend hours of dismay at school. The books and learning appear tiresome and boring. They give me no pleasure: they make me feel weak, fatigued and impotent.

The persona says that in the abode of learning, I cannot still and still feel happy. I bow down my head, tired of the continuous hours of study. I feel burdened with responsibilities in the alcove of dismay. As Robert Morley says:

“Show me a man who has enjoyed his school days and I’ll show you a bully and a bore”

“Formal approach to study often seems forbidding and difficult. Children resent having to study, claiming that a disciplined reading destroys and damages the pleasure of it.”

Stanza 4: 

In this stanza the poet asks a rhetorical question. He asks that how can cage birds sing? Birds and children alike are born of joy and happiness. Their joy lies in their freedom.