Education
Senior 2 · English
Education
Lesson 4 of 4
22 min
More than two hundred years ago, the English poet William Blake wrote a poem in the voice of a schoolboy who loves learning outdoors on a summer morning but hates being shut inside a gloomy classroom. The question he asks is still discussed by teachers today: can a child learn well if joy is taken out of learning?
Poets choose words for their sound as well as their meaning. In this lesson you will read Blake's poem, learn three sound devices (alliteration, assonance and consonance), and practise English vowel contrasts and diphthongs.
I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the skylark 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 learning's bower,
Worn through 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 nipped,
And blossoms blown away;
And if the tender plants are stripped
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?
Glossary: morn = morning; winds his horn = blows his hunting horn (winds rhymes with finds here); skylark = a small bird that sings as it flies high; outworn = tired, worn out; dismay = unhappiness and worry; drooping = hanging down, tired; bower = a pleasant shady place; dreary = dull and depressing; annoy = trouble; nipped = pinched off; mellowing = ripening; blasts = strong, cold winds.
1. How does the speaker feel in stanza 1, and in stanza 2? What causes the change?
Stanza 1: happy and free, singing with the birds. Stanza 2: miserable, because he has to go to school, where the day is spent "in sighing and dismay".
2. In stanza 4, the child is compared to a bird. What is the cage?
The school, or the strict classroom, which stops him from "singing" (enjoying learning).
3. In stanzas 5 and 6, the poet speaks to parents. What is his warning?
If a child's joy is destroyed while young, like buds nipped off a plant, there will be no "summer fruits" later: the child will not grow into a happy, successful adult.
| Device | Definition | Example from the poem |
|---|---|---|
| alliteration | the same consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words | "And blossoms blown away"; "the bird that is born for joy"; "the skylark sings" |
| assonance | the same vowel sound repeated inside nearby words | "Nor in my book can I take delight": the /aɪ/ sound three times |
| consonance | the same consonant sound repeated inside or at the end of nearby words | "The distant huntsman winds his horn": the /n/ sound again and again |
Remember: it is the sound, not the spelling, that counts. City and sun alliterate (both begin with /s/); cat and city do not.
Line: "Sit in a cage and sing?"
Step 1 say it aloud slowly. Step 2: listen for the first sounds of the stressed words: sit … sing, so there is alliteration of /s/. Step 3: explain the effect. The soft, hissing /s/ links "sit" and "sing", the two things a caged bird is forced to do, and makes the line sound quiet and sad.
In an exam, always follow this pattern: name the device → quote the words → explain the effect (it creates a mood, links ideas, makes a line musical or memorable).
Kinyarwanda has five vowel qualities (a, e, i, o, u), each short or long. English has more, so pairs of words can differ in their vowel alone. These pairs are called minimal pairs:
A diphthong is a vowel sound that glides from one vowel position to another inside one syllable. Blake's rhymes are full of them:
| Diphthong | From the poem | More examples |
|---|---|---|
| /eɪ/ | day, dismay, away | rain, great |
| /aɪ/ | rise, my, delight | time, buy |
| /ɔɪ/ | joy, annoy, destroy | voice, boy |
| /aʊ/ | hour, bower, shower | now, town |
| /əʊ/ | blown, O | go, road |
| /ɪə/ | appear, year | here, clear |
| /eə/ | care | where, chair |
Tip
Alliteration = At the start. Assonance = vowels (A, E, I, O, U). Consonance = consonants anywhere. Always test with your ears, not your eyes, and always explain the effect of the sound.
Which consonant sounds are repeated inside and at the end of the words in "the blasts of winter"? Name the device.
Solution: /s/ and /t/ in blasts and winter. Consonants repeated inside and at the end of words are consonance. The hard /t/ sounds make the cold wind feel sharp.
Find the alliteration: "O father and mother, if buds are nipped, / And blossoms blown away".
Solution: buds, blossoms, blown, the repeated /b/, which makes the destruction of young plants sound sudden, like a gust of wind.
Which word has a different vowel sound from the others: joy, annoy, destroy, day?
Solution: day (/eɪ/); the others have /ɔɪ/.
Say each pair aloud and write a sentence using both words: ship / sheep.
Possible answer: The farmer took his sheep across the lake by ship.
(a) Read stanza 1 aloud. Let the diphthong /aɪ/ in I and rise glide clearly, and keep the long /iː/ in tree, me and sweet long and steady.
(b) Write four lines of your own about your school, using one example each of alliteration, assonance and consonance. Label them.
Model answer:
The bell brings busy boots across the yard, (alliteration: /b/)
We sing and read and weave our dreams at seven, (assonance: /iː/ in read, weave, dreams)
The chalk dust drifts past windows, soft and slow, (consonance: /s/ and /t/ in dust, drifts, past, soft)
And every lesson opens one more door.
Remember
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