The Ecchoing Green Exhibit

The Ecchoing Green

By William Blake

From Songs of Innocence

Illustration

 

 

Transcript:

 

The sun does arise,

And make happy the skies.

The merry bells ring

To welcome the Spring.

The sky-lark and thrush,

The birds of the bush,

Sing louder around,

To the bells’ cheerful sound. 

While our sports shall be seen

On the Ecchoing 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 & boys, 

In our youth-time were seen, 

On the Ecchoing 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 brothers,

Like birds in their nest,

Are ready for rest;

And sport no more seen,

On the darkening Green.

Description: 

    The Ecchoing Green, a poem from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence, describes a group of people in spring surrounded by nature. With the passing of winter the world is once more coming alive, marked by the bells and the birds. The children are playing while the old folk reminisce, and this carries on until the children are too tired to continue and the sun sets. The poem is separated into three stanzas spread across two different illustrations. Before any lines is a larger illustration of women around an oak with their children. It is colorful, but the colors are all earth tones, giving a sense of connection to the nature. The stanzas include simple rhyming couplets and simple imagery which fit the outer characteristics of the poem. Around all the verses the children play along filigree of vines and branches. On the second illustration on the bottom half is a scene of the mothers and old folk directing the children back home as the sun sets.

Analysis:

    On the surface it’s a very joyful poem of children playing in nature, but as the greater work’s title suggests, it is like this through the eyes of children, those who are still innocent. In this joyful season of life that children are likened to, it is the old folk ever nearing their winter who give the poem depth. They too were once young, in their spring, playing in the “Ecchoing Green,” but those days are long past them. While they’ve come to accept this, the children do not realize how short these days are, how little time they have to care as little as they do. As the sun sets at the end of the day the sun will also set on their days of being young, of their days of spring bloom, and their sport will be gone from this “darkening Green” forever. One day, if they make it, they will become the old folk sitting under the oak laughing and reminiscing as new flowers bloom, new birds sing, and new children play. It’s a beautiful innocence, a human constant, and it is oh so fleeting. As sure as the sun sets, their innocence will become a distant memory.