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?