1st PUC English Textbook Answers Reflections Chapter 2 The School Boy

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Karnataka 1st PUC English Textbook Answers Reflections Chapter 2 The School Boy

The School Boy Questions and Answers, Notes, Summary

The School Boy Comprehension I

Question 1.
Who, do you think, ‘I’ refers to in the poem?
Answer:
A school-going boy.

Question 2.
‘sweet company’ refers to
(a) skylark
(b) huntsman’s horn
(c) bird’s song
(d) all of the above.
Answer:
(d) all of the above.

Question 3.
What drives the boy’s joy away?
OR
What cannot give delight to the schoolboy?
Answer:
The prospect of going to school.

Question 4.
How do the little ones spend the day in the school?
Answer:
The little ones spend their time in school in a dull manner as they are full of dismay and restlessness.

Question 5.
What does ‘cage’ metaphorically refer to in the poem?
Answer:
School is compared to a bird’s cage.

Question 6.
Pick the phrase from the following which does not refer to formal schooling:
(a) buds are nipped
(b) fruits are gathered
(c) plants are stripped
(d) blossoms are blown away.
Answer:
(b) fruits are gathered.

Question 7.
Relate the Seasons mentioned under column A with the stages of life under column B.

A	B
1. Spring	a. youth
2. Summer	b. old age
3. Winter	c. childhood

Answer:
1 – c; 2 – a; 3 – b.

The School Boy Comprehension II

Question 1.
What does the schoolboy love to do on a summer morn? What drives his joy away?
Answer:
On a summer morn, the schoolboy would like to rise early when the birds sing, the distant huntsman blows his horn and the skylark sings with him. He considers all these to be the sweet company. But, he is not allowed to do this as he has to go to school and the school drives all joy away.

Question 2.
Describe the boy’s experience in the school.
Answer:
The boy’s experience in school is full of fear and discouragement. The authoritarian way of teaching makes the boy sigh in dismay. His boredom and fear are reflected in the drooping manner in which he sits and the restlessness that he exhibits. The books give him no joy and the school makes him feel worn out.

Question 3.
According to the poet, how does formal education curb a learner’s potential?
OR
Explain the poet’s use of natural images to caution the parents about the effects of formal schooling on their child.
Answer:
Formal education curbs the potential of the child as it takes away from the child its freedom. The child is like a caged bird in school and just like the wings of the caged bird droop, the spirit of the child sags in school which instils in the child a sense of fear. Children, like plants, need to be nurtured and given care, if they are to ripen successfully and bear fruit later on. If children are not allowed to have a natural childhood, which is spent in playing freely among the natural things (hills, meadows, lambs, birds, etc.), then they will wither before they can blossom into mature adults. Spring stands for new growth and that is why the poet uses the metaphor of the spring to argue that a school does not allow spring to flourish.

The School Boy Comprehension III

Question 1.
Formal schooling not only takes away the joy of childhood but also hinders the child’s growth forever. Explain.
OR
Why does Blake reject the conventional educational system?
OR
What are Blake’s views on formal education?
Answer:
To highlight the point that formal education not only takes away the joy of childhood but also hinders the child’s growth forever, the poet equates the seasons of the year with different stages in life. He points out that what happens in childhood has its impact on adulthood and old age. He questions as to how there can be growth in summer if the buds, blossoms and plants themselves are destroyed in spring. If summer is bereft of fruits, naturally one has no defence against the blasts of winter.

In other words, the poet tells us that a happy childhood makes adulthood and old age pleasurable. But if the childhood itself is devoid of joy, there is nothing to look forward to in adulthood and old age. Thus the poet makes it crystal clear that childhood experiences are very important to lead a happy. life and school have a major role to play in determining whether childhood experiences are conducive to growth or not.

Question 2.
Do you think the poet is arguing against education? Discuss.
Answer:
No, the poet is not against education. He is only against unhealthy practices in education. He makes it clear that education should be offered in a free and healthy atmosphere. Children should not be made to feel like caged birds. They should not feel insecure and restless. They should not find the whole experience of learning to be dreary and dull. There should be enough opportunities to tap their creative potential and turn them into productive human beings.

The School Boy Additional Questions and Answers

I. Answer the following questions in a word, a phrase or a sentence each:

Question 1.
When does the schoolboy love to rise?
Answer:
The schoolboy loves to rise in the morning of the summer.

Question 2.
Whose company does the schoolboy love?
Answer:
He loves the company of a skylark.

Question 3.
What is the schoolboy compared to?
Answer:
A caged bird.

Question 4.
Who do you think the ‘cruel eye’ is? Why does the poet call them cruel?
OR
What does’a cruel outworn eye’ refer to?
Answer:
The phrase ‘a cruel eye outworn’ refers to the authoritarian ways of teaching. In other words, it is a reference to the teacher or any other representative of authority, such as the headmaster, who treats the child in a very strict manner.

Question 5.
To which season is childhood compared in the poem?
Answer:
Spring.

Question 6.
“How shall the summer arise in joy/Or the summer fruits appear?” ‘Summer’ here refers to
(a) season
(b) childhood
(c) heat
(d) youth.
Answer:
(d) youth.

Question 7.
The schoolboy cannot take delight in his books because –
(a) he is attracted towards nature
(b) he is dull
(c) he doesn’t like to study
(d) the books are uninteresting.
Answer:
(a) he is attracted towards nature.

Question 8.
Whose song does the schoolboy love to hear on mornings in summer?
Answer:
The song of the skylark.

Question 9.
What should not be nipped by the parents?
Answer:
Buds, which means the joys of childhood.

Question 10.
Which bird sings with the schoolboy, according to the speaker of ‘The School Boy’?
Answer:
The skylark.

Question 11.
What does the ‘bird’ metaphorically refer to?
Answer:
The child with the free spirit.

Question 12.
Where can a bird that is born to fly freely not sit and sing, according to Blake?
Answer:
In a cage.

Question 13.
What does the huntsman wind in the poem ‘The School Boy’?
Answer:
The huntsman winds his horn.

Question 14.
What do ‘blasts of winter’ signify in the poem ‘The School Boy’?
Answer:
Old age.

Question 15.
Who loves to rise early on a summer morn?
Answer:
The speaker, that is, the schoolboy.

Question 16.
Who winds his horn on a summer morning?
Answer:
The huntsman.

Question 17.
Which stage of life does spring season relate to? .
Answer:
Childhood.

Question 18.
What does the term ‘learning’s bower’ refer to?
OR
What do you understand by learning bower in the poem?
Answer:
In the poem, the word ‘bower’ is a metaphor for school. It is used to suggest that learning should take place in the company of nature and not within the four walls of the school. When learning is in school, it is uninteresting.

Question 19.
On a beautiful summer morning, who gives a sweet company to the little boy?
Answer:
The skylark.

Question 20.
‘The cruel eye outworn’ refers to
(a) caring parents
(b) unsympathetic teachers
(c) helpless children.
Answer:
(b) unsympathetic teachers.

Question 21.
In the poem ‘The School Boy’, young children are compared to
(a) huntsman and teacher
(b) summer’s joy and winter’s blast
(c) tender plant and bird.
Answer:
(c) tender plant and bird.

Question 22.
Whose song is heard on every tree?
Answer:
The birds’ singing is heard on every tree.

Question 23.
What does the boy hate to do on a summer morning?
Answer:
The boy hates to spend the day in school on a summer morn.

Question 24.
Where does the boy hate to go on a summer morning? .
Answer:
The boy hates to go to school on a summer morning.

Question 25.
A cruel eye outworn refers to ______
(a) authoritarian teacher
(b) bird
(c) huntsman.
Answer:
(a) authoritarian teacher.

Question 26.
‘Learning’s bower’ refers to _______
(a) fields
(b) home
(c) school
(d) tree
(e) teacher.
Answer:
(c) school.

Question 27.
‘Dreary shower’ implies _______
(a) monotonous ways of teaching
(b) easy ways of understanding
(c) modern techniques adopted in teaching.
Answer:
(a) monotonous ways of teaching.

Question 28.
“And blossoms blow away”. Here ‘blossoms’ refer to ______
(a) teachers
(b) flowers
(c) children.
Answer:
(c) children.

Question 29.
‘Spring’ refers to _______ in the poem.
(a) old age
(b) childhood
(c) youth.
Answer:
(b) childhood.

Question 30.
‘Summer’ refers to ______ in the poem.
(a) old age
(b) childhood
(c) youth.
Answer:
(c) youth.

Question 31.
Which season signifies ‘old age’ in the poem?
Answer:
The autumn season signifies old age in the poem.

Question 32.
What does ‘winter’ refer to, in the poem?
Answer:
In the poem, ‘winter’ refers to old age.

II. Answer the following questions in 80 – 100 words each:

Question 1.
What makes the boy think that school is a ‘cage’?
OR
Why does the schoolboy not take delight in learning in school in the poem ‘The School Boy’?
OR
Why does the boy find school life uninteresting in the poem ‘The School Boy’?
OR
In what way, according to the poet, are a schoolboy and a bird similar? What does the poet feel a school is like?
Answer:
In school, the boy has no joy of learning. He finds everything tedious. He wants to be free as a bird and be in the company of nature. But the school does not allow this to happen. There are strict teachers who deal with children in an authoritarian manner. Children are made to study books which they find uninteresting. That is why the boy considers the school a cage. Just as a bird that wants to be free and soar high, singing and flapping its wings, the schoolboy yearns for freedom from school. But just as the bird is caged, the schoolboy is compelled to be in school and just as a caged bird cannot sing, the schoolboy can have no sense of joy and remains in school with his wing drooping.

Question 2.
The boy loves to learn amidst nature. How does the poet bring it out in the poem?
Answer:
The boy is excited waking up on a beautiful summer morning. He likes to rise early when the birds sing, the distant huntsman blows his horn and the skylark sings with him. He considers all these to be the sweet company. But all the happiness that he feels disappears when he realizes that he has to go to school when actually he wishes to enjoy the mirth of summer. It drives all joy away.

Question 3.
What is the plea of the schoolboy to his father and mother?
OR
What argument does the boy put across to his parents against going to school?
OR
What is the school boy’s prayer to his parents?
Answer:
The schoolboy appeals to the alternate authority of the parents to realise the predicament of the child and the dangers that lie in the suppression of natural learning. The boy complains to the highest authority – father and mother – and argues that if misery withers the tender plants, the beautiful buds and the newborn buds, summer can never be joyful. In other words, the speaker shows that a budding child is picked and swept off in the early stage of life in an ocean of sorrow, where there is no one to care for. Its state is compared to damaged nature that can bear no fruit and have no harvest. If care and concern rule over the plants, flowers, birds, such a summer will be dry and will bear no fruit.

The child enquires with his parents as to how they can win back what grief has destroyed. If the plants are withered due to the canker of grief, no fruit will be there in the season of autumn – mellowing years of one’s life. This implies that if childhood pleasures and joys are censored and truncated, adult life runs the danger of being utterly dry and unproductive. The old age would be miserable.

Question 4.
How does the poem bring out the contrast between the school boy’s experience inside and outside the school?
Answer:
Inside the school, he is like a caged bird. Outside he is as free as a singing skylark. On a summer morn, the schoolboy would like to rise early when the birds sing, the distant huntsman blows his horn and the skylark sings with him. He considers all these to be a sweet company. But he is not allowed to do this as he has to go to school and the school drives all joy away. The boy’s experience in school is full of fear and discouragement. The authoritarian way of teaching makes the boy sigh in dismay. His boredom and fear are reflected in the drooping manner in which he sits and the restlessness that he exhibits. The books give him no joy and the school makes him feel worn out.

Question 5.
How is the child’s growth ‘nipped and stripped’ of its joy in the springing day?
Answer:
The speaker in the poem is a schoolboy who is pleading with parents not to force children to spend their childhood in the rigid environment of a school. The speaker uses three inter-related images – the schoolboy, the bird and the plant to symbolically express the predicament of those children who spend their childhood in the confines of a school much against their will.

Using the metaphor of the seasons, the boy tries to convince parents that there is an intimate and sequential connection between the seasons and if they miss a season completely or do not enjoy the joys of a season they cannot face or enjoy the next season willingly. Here, the speaker uses the analogy of the (plant) buds to express his ideas. ‘Buds’ which normally appear in the spring season, develop into flowers enjoying the pleasant weather – fresh air, warm sunshine and plenty of open space to expand. Thus the pleasant weather of early summer is essential for the growth and development of buds.

In a similar way, children are like the buds of spring who love the joys of summer – birds’ singing, the skylark’s company and the huntsman blowing his horn. But, this feeling of paradise is taken away when they are sent to school where they spend the whole day. They no longer hear the birds singing and sit drooping like a bird in a cage under the watchful eyes of the teacher.
Thus forcing the children to go to school in spring is like ‘nipping’ the buds in their infancy and blowing the blossoms away. If children are stripped of their joy in spring, they cannot grow and mature into fruits in summer.

Metaphorically it means that if a man’s childhood were not spent happily, he will have problems of moving onto the next stage of life. There were no ‘blossoms’ in spring, so logically there will be no ‘fruits’ to harvest in summer. There is also the suggestion that once the ‘blasts of winter’ come they will not be able to bear up against them. This means to say that as we get older, life throws painful things at us and if we have been abused in our childhood then we will not have the strength to withstand those painful experiences.

Question 6.
How do the different seasons show the effects of the school on the child?
Answer:
The speaker in the poem is a schoolboy who is pleading with parents not to force children to spend their childhood in the rigid environment of a school. The speaker uses three inter-related images – the schoolboy, the bird and the plant to symbolically express the predicament of those children who spend their childhood in the confines of a school much against their will.

Question 7.
Bring out the contrast between the boy’s experience inside and outside the school in ‘The School Boy’.
Answer:
In the poem ‘The School Boy’, the first stanza portrays the experience of the schoolboy outside the school, whereas the next three stanzas present the experience of the schoolboy inside the school.

In the first stanza, the speaker is a young boy who tells the reader that he feels joyful to rise in the fresh and delightful summer morning. He enjoys the chirping of the birds which announces the daybreak. The boy gets entertained by the company of the hunter who blows his horn from a distant field and the sweet lullabies of skylarks. Thus, the image of the child in the first stanza focuses on nature as free and unfettered. He is associated with the spring as a time for growth, freshness and playfulness.

But, in the next three stanzas, we get a totally different picture of the young schoolboy. Once the boy is inside the school, he loses his feeling of paradise. In the school, the birds sing no longer and the atmosphere is no longer pure or innocent. The boy is supervised by a cruel teacher and the young ones spend the day In sighing and dismay. The boy finds the school boring. He sits drooping in class. He claims that school hours are too long. He can’t find any interest in books. He describes the learning in school as a long ‘dreary shower’.

In the next stanza, the boy says that inside the school he feels like a caged bird that is forced to sing, and when he feels annoyed, he cannot but droop his tender wings. Thus, the bird imagery allows for the comparison between the schoolboy outside the school and the schoolboy inside the school.

III. Answer the following questions in 200 words each:

Question 1.
What picture of the schoolboy do you get in the poem ‘The School Boy’?
OR
Why does the child hate to go to school in ‘The School Boy’?
OR
How does the schoolboy view his experience in school in ‘The School Boy’?
OR
Describe the boy’s experience in the school in the poem ‘The School Boy’.
Answer:
In the poem, ‘The School Boy’ Blake makes a plea on behalf of little children who hate the experience of going to school because of the prevalent authoritarian ways of school authorities. In the poem, we see that it is a matter of utmost disappointment for the schoolboy to attend school on a sweet summer morning when actually he wishes to enjoy the mirth of summer. He is tired and even puzzled under the strict supervision of his teacher. The phrase ‘cruel eye outworn’ refers to the authoritarian eyes of the teacher that actually tire the boy. Instead of enjoying the pleasures of summer, the child has to compulsorily attend the school where he spends his day in boredom and dismay.

Naturally, in such a set-up, the child experiences weariness. He sits drooping out in the sea of tediousness. The child resents the assault on him by the oppressive personality of the teacher and the unnecessary words of erudition the teacher gushes out without attempting to understand either the child’s intention or his urge for unchecked freedom. The learning’s bower refers to a garden where the child can be taught in an interesting way, only if nature accompanies him instead of the school teacher.

A bird which is born cheerful and jovial can never sing sweet songs if caged. Similarly, a child, if restrained under the umbrella of annoying fear, tension and the scepticism of his teacher, can never enjoy the natural instincts of joy and playfulness. A world full of rigid course of discipline will ruthlessly take away the beautiful spring – the childhood days – of a person’s life.
Thus, though the tone of the poem is not highly critical, Blake does make his point clear-don’t kill the joy of learning.

Question 2.
‘The School Boy’ is a critique of the formal system of education. Comment.
OR
“Nature is the best teacher”. How is it depicted in the poem ‘The School Boy’?
OR
“The formal system of education hinders the growth of a child”. Explain with reference to the poem ‘The School Boy’.
Answer:
It is undoubtedly true that ‘The School Boy’ is a critique of the formal system of education. In the poem, it is Blake’s intention to suggest that ‘Nature is the best teacher’ and the formal system of education hinders the growth of children. That is why, in ‘The School Boy’, Blake presents children as lovers of nature who should be free and not trapped in a schoolroom.

Blake disagreed strongly with formal education and conventional teaching in schools. He firmly believed that this constrained people from having their own thoughts. Blake believed that children who were not given a formal education would want to learn of their own accord, making learning more fun and enjoyable.

The speaker is a young boy who feels joyful to rise in the fresh and delightful summer morning. The chirping of the birds announces the daybreak. The boy gets entertained by the company of the hunter who blows his horn from a distant field and the sweet lullabies of skylarks. Thus, the image of the child here focuses on his nature as free and unfettered. He is associated with the spring as a time for growth, freshness and playfulness.

This feeling of paradise is taken away in the second stanza. The boy has to attend the school where the birds no longer sing and the atmosphere is no longer pure or innocent. The boy is supervised by a cruel teacher and the ‘little ones spend the day In sighing and dismay’. In the third stanza, we learn that the boy finds the school boring. He sits drooping in class. He claims that school hours are too long. He can’t find any interest in books. He describes the learning in school as a long ‘dreary shower’. In the fourth stanza, the boy compares himself with a bird. He feels that he was caged and was forced to ‘sing’. The cage represents the school. When he feels annoyed he cannot but droop his tender wing! The bird imagery allows for the comparison between the free child being imprisoned in school and the songbird being caged.

Birds are also images of freedom. The schoolboy in school and the bird in the cage are, therefore, seen equivalent not only at the natural level but at the spiritual level too. Both represent the caging and entrapping of imaginative vision.

In the last two stanzas, the little boy is not happy with his parents for forcing him to go to school. He believes that his ability to learn and be successful in life is being ‘nipped’ and ‘stripped’ by the rigid nature of classroom learning. Here, the young boy is compared to a plant which is tender and vulnerable. So it is unable to bear fruit. The nipping of the bud, blossoms blowing away and stripped tender plants show how the classroom subdues the intelligence and potentiality of little ones, thereby endangering their future.

The concluding lines of the poem raise burning and weighty questions about the future effects of that system of education that inhibits children’s creative imagination. When the foundation of the ‘tender’ children is marred by such flaws in classroom learning, how do we expect them to produce fruits? Or “how shall we gather what griefs destroy” when the “blasts of winter appear”?

Question 3.
“A teacher should not be authoritarian”. Examine the statement with reference to the poem ‘The School Boy’.
OR
The poem ‘The School Boy’ is not just the speaker’s experience but a reminder to every teacher. Elucidate.
Answer:
William Blake’s poem ‘The School Boy’ discusses the issue of formal education. Formal education was a fairly new idea at the time when Blake wrote this poem in 1789. Children were expected to attend school in a schoolhouse as opposed to learning at home. Blake uses different literary devices including rhyme, metaphor and the image of both a bird and a plant to get his message across in his poem about how formal education hinders the overall development of young children.

In the first stanza, we get the picture of a happy boy. The boy loves nature. He enjoys the skylark’s company and likes to hear birds sing. The boy gets entertained by the company of the hunter who blows his horn from a distant field and the sweet lullabies of skylarks.

But, in the very next stanza, the boy expresses his disappointment at being forced to go to school. Interrupting his unusual delightful experience is the time for school. “It drives all joy away!” The little boy shows little or no interest in going to school because the teachers are cruel and the environment is unfriendly, while they spend the whole day in “sighing and dismay”. He feels the classroom is not a place where he belongs, unlike the natural environment that has made him happier earlier on. School children spend so many “anxious hours” in the class, ending up drooping.

Why does the boy say so? It is only because of the oppressive watchful eye of the teacher. Most teachers believe that they are meant to discipline the behaviour of children. They tend to forget that at that stage children need to enjoy the freedom to move about and see the natural world in its real colours. Teachers believe that they ought to force the children to learn from their books. It is this authoritarian attitude of the teacher that makes the children resist. That is why children equate a school with the cage of a bird. It is this idea that the schoolboy expresses In the poem. Therefore, teachers while teaching this poem must remember that the poem is a stern reminder to their own authoritarian teaching style in class.

The School Boy By William Blake A Note on the Poet:

William Blake (1757-1827), poet and painter, was born in Sohio, the son of a hosier. He had little formal education but was apprenticed to James Basire, an eminent engraver, and then sent to the Royal Academy. His finest work as an artist is the series, ‘Illustrations of the Book of Job’. His collections of poetry include ‘Poetical Sketches’ (1783), ‘Songs of Innocence’ (1789), ‘Marriage of Heaven and Hell’ (1790) and ‘Songs of Experience’ (1794). ‘The School Boy’ is a lyric from the ‘Songs of Experience’.

The School Boy Summary in English

‘The School Boy’ is a typical example of Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience’ in its theme and imagery. It deals with childhood and the subjugation of its spirit and uses imagery from the natural world. Though it was first published in 1789 as one of the ‘Songs of Innocence’, Blake moved it to the ‘Experience’ section of the 1794 edition maybe because the speaker is writing in retrospection about the childhood experiences from the perspective of a child.

In the first stanza of the poem, the poet gives us a pastoral image of the innocence of nature. We see that it is a matter of utmost disappointment for the speaker to attend school on a sweet summer morning when actually he wishes to enjoy the mirth of summer. He is tired and even puzzled under the strict supervision of his teacher. The words ‘cruel eye outworn’ refers to the authoritarian eyes of the teacher that actually tire the boy. Instead of enjoying the pleasures of summer, the child has to compulsorily attend the school where he spends his. day in boredom and dismay.

The School Boy Summary in Kannada 1

Stanzas V and VI are appealed to the alternate authority of the parents to realise the predicament of the child and the dangers in this suppression of natural learning. The boy complains to the highest authority – father and mother – to argue that if misery withers the tender plants, the beautiful buds and the newborn buds, summer can never be joyful. In other words, the speaker shows that a budding child is picked and swept off in the early stage of life in an ocean of sorrow, where there is no one to care for. Its state is compared to damaged nature that can bear no fruit and have no harvest. If care and concern rule over the plants, flowers, birds, such a summer will be dry and will bear no fruit.

All these concerns are expressed through rhetorical questions which have already been answered by the tone of the poem which gives a final note to the reader of the impossible condition of the schoolboy.

The School Boy Summary in Kannada

The School Boy Summary in Kannada 2

Glossary:

huntsman (n): hunter
winds his horn: blows his horn
a cruel eye outworn: authoritarian ways of teaching
dismay (n): authoritarian ways of teaching
anxious hour: restlessness of the boy
learning bower: a metaphor for school
dreary shower: here, it emphasises tiresome aspects of the school
blasts of winter: strong gusts of winter, snowstorms

Additional Glossary:

mellowing year: time of maturity
dreary shower: unnecessary lectures (shower of meaningless words)
blasts of winter: a metaphor for old age