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William Blake's "The School Boy" · The Daily Poem

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  [music]
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  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Monday, August 17th, 2026.
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  SPEAKER_00: Today's poem is by William Blake, and it's called The School Boy.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is the time of year when many boys are going back to school,
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  SPEAKER_00: perhaps many of them reluctantly.
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  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps some of those reluctant young school boys are listening at this moment
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  SPEAKER_00: and thinking,
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  SPEAKER_00: If I could just say the right words,
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  SPEAKER_00: if I could just make the right appeal,
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  SPEAKER_00: my parents would see the light and they would whisk me away to nature
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  SPEAKER_00: and not make me go to school anymore.
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  SPEAKER_00: I have unfortunately bad news for those boys because
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  SPEAKER_00: if William Blake's young schoolboy here and his eloquent appeal weren't enough
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  SPEAKER_00: to get him out of school on a summer's day, I doubt that anyone else is going to.
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  SPEAKER_00: But if it makes you feel any better, I'm right there with you.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here's the poem, The Schoolboy.
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  SPEAKER_00: I love to rise in a summer morn,
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  SPEAKER_00: when the birds sing on every tree,
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  SPEAKER_00: the distant huntsman wins his horn,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the skylark sings with me, oh, what sweet company.
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  SPEAKER_00: But to go to school in a summer morn, oh, it drives all joy away.
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  SPEAKER_00: Under a cruel eye outworn, the little ones spend the day in sighing and dismay.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ah, then at times I drooping sit,
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  SPEAKER_00: And spend many an anxious hour,
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  SPEAKER_00: Nor in my book can I take delight,
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  SPEAKER_00: Nor sit in learning's bower, Worn through with the dreary shower.
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  SPEAKER_00: How can the bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing?
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  SPEAKER_00: How can a child, when fear is annoy, But droop his tender wing And forget his youthful spring?
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  SPEAKER_00: O father and mother,
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  SPEAKER_00: if buds are nipped and blossoms blown away,
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  SPEAKER_00: and if the tender plants are stripped of their joy in the springing day,
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  SPEAKER_00: by sorrow and care's dismay,
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  SPEAKER_00: how shall the summer arise in joy,
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  SPEAKER_00: or the summer fruits appear,
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  SPEAKER_00: or how shall we gather what griefs destroy or bless the mellowing year when
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  SPEAKER_00: the blasts of winter appear?
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  SPEAKER_00: This has been The Daily Poem.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
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  SPEAKER_00: We'll be back tomorrow with a subscriber episode and here on the main channel on Wednesday.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you need more poetry,
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  SPEAKER_00: maybe to help you remember your love of school and of learning,
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  SPEAKER_00: you can find us at dailypoempod.substack.com to listen to all manner of poems,
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  SPEAKER_00: to leave your own thoughts and comments, and to subscribe and support the show.
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  SPEAKER_00: For all of us at Goldberry Studios,
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Sean Johnson,
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  SPEAKER_00: wishing all of the teachers and students going back to school good luck
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  SPEAKER_00: and wishing you all happy reading.