The poem "Schoolchildren" was written by W.H Auden and it emphases that a school could "metaphorically" be a prison. In this poem the school appears to be a junior private school that ranges from kindergarten to grade 6ish. In the perspective of the person telling the poem is the narrator. The narrator appears to be a simple observer looking into the playground of a schoolyard. But the question is; how does this sound like a prison? In stanza one "Here are all the captivities; the cells are as real: But these are unlike the prisoners we know Who are outraged or pining or wittily resigned" This line is pointing out that a school isn 't literally a prison, Auden just compares the kids to prisoners of a school but they share differences such as outraged or pining or wittily resigned.
In stanza 2 "For they dissent so little, so nearly content With the dumb play of the dog, the licking and rushing:" In this stanza the narrator observes that the children are all the same. This verse points out that this school is probably a private school because if they differ so little they must be wearing uniforms. The narrator later points out the activities of the children and how the narrator compares them to a dog. We think of teachers being more dominate then children and the teachers being the dog owner can throw a ball and the children being the dogs can go out and fetch it.
Stanza 3 - like jail mates they only see false hope. What they done cannot be undone. In the children 's perspective they always play and saying how the 'fallacious angel of a vision ' is really saying how bad education and school is. They like to have fun and the interpretation of 'little effort ' means they don 't try hard in school but instead enjoys having fun. In contrast to a prison the prisoners didn 't like their life and in order to accomplish a crime they must 've been really miserable from they 're past experiences. 'the
Cited: ttp://www.hwcn.org/~ap951/auden.html