105 Ways to Give a Book

Last Days of Summer

I have become well aware that we are closing in on the last days of summer. While many of you are sending the kids to school already, here in Virginia we have another two weeks — plus a spare, long weekend — and I’m clinging onto these eighteen days as our last gasp of freedom before Schedules come to take over our lives.

However, even I can no longer deny that school is just around the corner, so yesterday I shared some back-to-school titles at PBS Booklights, and today I’m sharing a poem that seems to speak of my own reluctance to leave summer behind.
The School Boy
by William Blake 

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.
Read the rest of the poem at Famous Poems and Poets and find more poems through Poetry Friday, hosted today at Teach Poetry.
Category: 4 comments

4 comments:

Laura said...

Thanks, Pam, for the poem and your book reviews. I love the Junie B. series.

Laura Evans
all things poetry

Mary Lee said...

Treasure those last 18 days of freedom!!!

Vonna said...

Summer ends here tonight. Those sighs of dismay stab my heart!

Suzanne Casamento said...

Great poem!

Summer just got here last week. It's been cold and gray since May. I'm hoping it will last a little while. At least another week.

Pathetic, huh?