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Karnataka 1st PUC English Textbook Answers Reflections Chapter 2 The School Boy
The School Boy Comprehension I
Question 1.
Who, do you think, ‘I’ refers to in the poem?
Answer:
T refers to the schoolboy.
Question 2.
Sweet company refers to
a) Skylark
b) Huntsman’s horn
c) Bird’s song
d) All the above three
Answer:
a) Skylark
Question 3.
What drives the boy’s joy away?
Answer:
To go to school on a summer morning drives the boy’s joy away.
Question 4.
How do the little ones spend the day in the school?
Answer:
The little ones spend the day in sighing and dismay.
Question 5.
What does cage stand for in the poem?
Answer:
Cage stands for school.
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 2. Summer 3. winter |
(a) Youth (b) Old age (c) childhood |
Answer:
1 – c, 2 – a, 3 – b
The School Boy Comprehension II
Question 1.
What does the school boy love to do on a summer morn? What drives his joy away?
Answer:
The school boy loves to rise in a summer morn. The birds will sing on every tree. The distant huntsman winds his horn. And the skylark sings with the boy. But to go to school on a summer morn drives all joy away.
Question 2.
Describe the boy’s experience in the school.
Answer:
The boy spends the whole day in sighing and dismay in the school. He sits drooping in the desk. He had many anxious hours. He did not take delight in his book. He feels that he is born for joy sitting in a cage and sing.
Question 3.
According to the poet how does formal education curb a learner’s potential?
Answer:
William Blake believed in freedom of speech, democracy and ‘free love’, for these reasons he disagreed strongly with formal education and conventional teaching in both schools and churches. He believed that this constrained people stopping them from having their own thoughts.
Blake believed that children who were not given a formal education would want to learn off their own accord making learning more fun and enjoyable for the child. Blake portrays these opinions in the poem The schoolboy’; which he chose to write in the voice of ‘the schoolboy’ himself, to stand up for children whose views on schooling are rarely acknowledged.The children are asked to sit many hours in the school.
A learner used to spend many anxious hours. He cannot take any delight from his books. Sitting in the school is like being in a cage. The learner cannot show the total skills and abilities because of the curriculum he is undergone. Thus formal education, curbs the learner’s potential.
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.
Answer:
William Blake embraced school and always7 advocated for formal education. He always advocated for hard work and quality in education.William Blake believed formal schooling puts a limitation for the children in the school.
Question 2.
Do you think the poet is arguing against education? Discuss.
Answer:
No, the poet is arguing against the ill-treated in the school. He speaks about the freedom of the school going children. The education should be enjoyable and amusement. It has to provide a child to grow mentally, intellectually, socially and psychologically.
The School Boy Additional Question and Answer
Question 1.
The sweet company is in the poem
(a) With other boys
(b) With the huntsman
(c) With the skylark
Answer:
(c) With the skylark
Question 2.
The boy goes to school on a
(a) summer morn
(b) winter morn
(c) spring morn.
Answer:
(a) summer mom
Question 3.
The cage here means
(a) cage of a bird
(b) the situation of the boy
(c) the school.
Answer:
(c) the school.
Question 4.
The reason for forgetting his youthful spring is
(a) the school
(b) fears annoy
(c) when he reads the books
Answer:
(b) fears annoy
The School Boy Summary in English
This poem is written by William Blake the great poet of east. The poem is all about the confinements of the classroom in which children are restricted. The first stanza is full of excitement and happiness as the child wakes up to hear the sound of the birds, making auditory appeals to the senses ‘birds sing, winds his horn, skylark sings’. But as the poem progresses we see that the boy has to go to school on this Summer Morn and an extended metaphor is applied.
‘How can the bird that is born for joy, sit in a cage and sing?’ which is using imagery of the boy as a bird trapped in a cage, the setting isn’t natural and the boy wants to learn but not in the restrictive education that is expected of him.
The word ‘drooping’ connects an image of a flower, wilting in uncongenial conditions and this anticipates the imagery of stanza five. The boy wants to learn, but he feels he could learn so much more if he was outside under the ‘bower’. In the end of this poem he is finally happy because summers are over and winter has just started.
The School Boy Summary in Kannada


Glossary
Huntaman : hunter
Winds : blows his horn
Acrueleyeoutworn authoritarian ways of teaching
Dismay (n) : feeling of fear and discouragement
Anxioushour : restlessnessof the boy
Learning bower : metaphor for school
Dreary shower : here, it emphasizes tiresome aspects of the school
Blasts of winter : strong gusts of winter, snowstorms