Echoing Green - William Blake

The 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.


This literary poem by Romantic poet William Blake is set in the spring, therefore meeting the criteria of my theme. It has a rhyme scheme of AABBCCDDEE in all three verses, with an iambic pentameter. It sports much repetitions: "On the echoing Green... On the echoing green... On the darkening green." It contains much contrast, from first verse to third. In the first verse, it is morning and everyone is rising, birds are flying and singing, and children are playing. In the last verse, everyone is going home and birds returning to their nests. The theme is the stages of life, and details, birth (first verse), living life (second verse), and death (last verse), reflected by the stages of the day on any given spring day. The old people reminiscing of their childhood while watching children hints at the theme of the cycle of life. After these old people are gone, the children whom they watch will take the place of the old people. Pastoral themes also are quite apparent in this poem, shown by the abundant portrayal of animals, trees, and plants.