The Echoing Green
The Echoing Green - context Summary
Published in Songs of Innocence
Published in William Blake’s 1789 Songs of Innocence, "The Echoing Green" presents a pastoral, cyclical scene of communal childhood play from morning to evening. It frames intergenerational memory—older figures recalling their own youth—within a simple, celebratory depiction of rural life. As the day closes, the poem gently shifts to rest, reinforcing the collection’s focus on innocence, warmth, and social harmony rather than moral complexity.
Read Complete AnalysesThe sun does arise, And make happy the skies; The merry bells ring To welcome the spring; The skylark and thrush, The birds of the bush, Sing louder around To the bell's cheerful sound, While our sports shall be seen On the Echoing Green. Old John with white hair, Does laugh away care, Sitting under the oak, Among the old folk. They laugh at our play, And soon they all say: "Such, such were the joys When we all, girls and boys, In our youth time were seen On the Echoing Green." Till the little ones, weary, No more can be merry; The sun does descend, And our sports have an end. Round the laps of their mothers Many sisters and brother, Like birds in their nest, Are ready for rest, And sport no more seen On the darkening Green. .
Feel free to be first to leave comment.