The speaker is a caricature of a rural Irishman — though the gender is never specified, the character’s responsibilities and chores imply a masculine role. The speaker is young enough to go to school but old enough to care for his home and land. Although the poem is largely objective, the speaker exhibits a sense of dissatisfaction with the rhythms of his life. The speaker’s world is very small, encompassing their farm and school. By the end of the poem, the speaker has attained, or at least glimpsed, a new threshold of knowledge from the wider world. It’s left to interpretation if the speaker will pursue this path or remain within the boundaries of his current constraints.