The Schoolboy William Blake

I love to rise in a summer morn
When the birds sing on every tree
The distant huntsman winds his horn
And the sky-lark sings with me
O! what sweet company

But to go to school in a summer morn
O! 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 learnings bower
Worn thro' 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?

O father and mother if buds are nip'd
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