School Boy By William Blake example essay topic

Compare and Contrast the poets' treatment of the experience of growing-up in these poems. The four poems that I have chosen to compare and contrast are, 'The Prelude,' by William Wordsworth 'The School Boy,' by William Blake, both of which date pre-1914. Then post 1914, I have chosen 'The Early Purges,' by Seamus Heaney, and lastly 'Little Boy Crying,' by Mervyn Morris. All of these four poems that I have chosen, treat the experience of growing up in different ways. Both Wordsworth and Blake were Romantic poets, which meant that they deeply believed in personal individuality and freedom. They also believed in the huge importance of Imagination as they saw it as having the potential to improve every person's life.

'The School Boy,' by William Blake conveys a message of how unhappy this boy is at school. This is because the boy would much rather be outside, enjoying the spring day, and most importantly enjoying his youth. At school, the boy feels trapped, we know this as he compares this experience metaphorically a bird in a cage, 'How can the bird born for joy / sit in a cage and sing. ' We can also see from this that he is asking a rhetorical question, which questions the reader, to how he would feel in this situation, and he is further urging his parents to let him enjoy his childhood.

'The Prelude' by William Wordsworth conveys a message of how adulthood is a huge step away form childhood. He writes in an ambivalent tone, and he describes this stage between childhood and adulthood, which we know to be adolescence. Wordsworth describes this stage of his life as exciting, adventurous, with apprehension and fear, also that he is vulnerable, and powerless to stop what is happening to him. We see all of these thoughts expressed in the poem. 'Little Boy Crying,' by Mervyn Morris writes in his poem about how the small child sees his father, to whom he compares him to a 'giant' or an 'Olga'. This child sees his father as a cruel evil person, as he will not give him what he wants.

The writer then shifts the perspective, so that we get an overall view of the situation. Now we learn that it is hurting the father to see his child like this, but the father knows that it will benefit him greater in the long run. The general message is that is there is 'no pain no gain. ' 'The Early Purges; by Seamus Heaney describes to us how when you still have your innocence, you see acts such as killing kittens as a terrible murderous act. Once you have lost this innocence, such as when he first experienced the drowning of the kittens, you gradually realise why this has to be done, and as you finally grow up, you just see it as something that is necessary. Then you loose all feelings for the drowning kittens.

Heaney writes in an unemotional tone, which gives us a sense of more emotion to the subject.