The Schoolboy

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



How shall the summer arise in joy

Or the summer fruits appear

Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy

Or bless the mellowing year

When the blasts of winter appear?