Literature Entry Week 6 - Blake and The Schoolboy
Week 6 already and what a huge week for most of us with 2 huge assignments due in week 7 for English Curriculum and History Curriculum! Good luck to those of us who haven’t finished or are stressing like I was over it.
But we had a huge week as well with uni and a discussion! We had a really good discussion this time around and it was also nice to understand the content a bit better and also gain a better understanding of Blake and his poetry as well. It has helped me as well as hindered me this week. I have the flu from all the stress and it’s been an extremely busy week for me.
This week in the discussions and last week in the lecture we looked the at poem ‘The Schoolboy’ and I found this an interesting poem because it does say a lot though it probably speaks to people in different ways as well. Here is what I said in the discussion this week with a little editing of course!
There is a fine line between innocence and childhood, I think that maybe in some ways our 21st century-ism is coming through because I can see why he has moved it into Experience from Innocence and it is a much better fit in the Experience part of the compilation of poems, but I think that kids today wouldn’t be as mature as the school boy in the poem. I definitely wasn’t concerned with the natural and nature that was going on around me, it was more about not getting a sock tan and which boy was the better looking and what happened on the weekend.
Perhaps children in Blake’s time had time to stop and smell the flowers but us living in the 21st century with all this technology and fast paced living certainly impacts on how we see the world and I also think that this plays a part in understanding the concept in this poem.
I think that it is a reflection of how Blake felt about the school and his schooling in general terms. We know that Blake is very much into the nature aspect of life.
I just had a thought to, there would have been more nature in Blake’s time as well and so it would have been right in front of you, unlike now we have to go to a national park to see nature in all its glory. We have changed nature as it was and so maybe that also impacts on how we value nature compared to Blake and the people of his time.
When we spoke about this poem in the lecture one thing that I picked up was that 'our learning may be more beneficial from being in touch with nature', I think that this may be dated in this day and age but, just sitting in the sun at uni makes you enjoy your day so maybe we all need to become like the school boy in the sense that we need to stop and smell the roses!