"The Schoolboy" from Songs of Innocence and Byron's Don Juan, stanzas 37-48.

'The Schoolboy' and this extract from Byron's epic Don Juan are concerned with the theme of learning. Blake regards formal schooling as confining and destructive to a child's nature, whereas Byron ridicules and shows the ineffectuality of strict puritan education. 'The Schoolboy' comprises six stanzas of five lines with a strict ABABB rhyme scheme. The rhythm is iambic, the natural speech pattern, loose tetrameter and trimeter, representing the child's struggle against the confinement of school. …

…also be said to employ what Wordsworth describes in his 'Preface to Lyrical Ballads' as the 'real language of men' (l 195) in their conversational tone rather than the accepted 'high' language of poetry. They illustrate the diversity that may be included within the term 'Romantic.' Bibliography Bygrave, S. (ed) (2001) Romantic Writings. Open University Press. Asbee (2002) Approaching Poetry, Malta, Interprint Limited. Owens, W.R and Johnson,,H. (eds) (2002) Romantic Writings: An Anthology,Open University Press.