Back to: Punjab Board Class 7th English Guide and Notes
Table of Contents
Introduction
“There was a naughty boy” by John Keats is about a boy who is naughty as he wants to see things around the world and is bored with his own country, England. His exploratory desire to see new things is termed his “naughtiness”. He imagines that things in Scotland are different from England and he runs away from his hometown to visit this new place.
About the poet
John Keats was an English Romantic poet. He was born on 31 October 1795 and died at the age of 26 in 1821. But he was one of the main figures of English romantic poets with Lord Byron and P. B. Shelley.
Theme
In this poem, John Keats is talking about the naughty in us. The poet tries to bring out the mindset condition of those who dream to visit some distant place that they imagine would be wonderful, mesmerizing, and dreamy altogether.
Stanza 1
There was a naughty boy, And a naughty boy was he. He ran away to Scotland, The people there to see- Then he found That the ground was as hard, That a yard was as long, That a song was as merry, That a cherry was as red,
Once a naughty boy went to Scotland to see its people. There he found a ground, which was as long as a yard, a song which was joyful, the cherry which was red. He found things to be the same as they were in England.
Stanza 2
That lead was as weighty, That fourscore was as eighty, That a door was as wooden, As in England- So he stood in his shoes And he wondered, He wondered, He stood in his shoes, And he wondered.
The very heavy lead, an eighty-year-old eighty, and a wooden door. It was all the same as was in England. The boy stood in his shoes looking at all these things. He wondered at all these things.
