The Echoing Green
The sun does arise,And make happy the skies;The merry bells ringTo welcome the Spring;The skylark and thrush,The birds of the bush,Sing louder aroundTo the bells' cheerful sound;While our sports shall be seenOn 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 joysWhen we all--girls and boys--In our youth-time were seenOn 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 mothersMany sisters and brothers,Like birds in their nest,Are ready for rest,And sport no more seenOn the darkening green.
Words in this poem
- skylark n.
- A lark that mounts and sings as it files, especially the common species (Alauda arvensis) found in Europe and in some parts of Asia, and celebrated for its melodious song; -- called also sky laverock.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Echoing Green is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of William Blake, Project Gutenberg ebook #574; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Blake, The Echoing Green, in Poems of William Blake (1783–1794), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #574, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/blake-poems/the-echoing-green.html, id L01983.
Form and metre
The Echoing Green is 30 lines in 3 stanzas of 10 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 87% of the lines. The metre is anapaestic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.4 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 23% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in anapaestic dimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABB--CCDD ariseA · skiesA · ringB · springB · thrush · bush · aroundC · soundC · seenD · greenD
- 2 AABBCCDDEE hairA · careA · oakB · folkB · playC · sayC · joysD · boysD · seenE · greenE
- 3 --AABBCCDD weary · merry · descendA · endA · mothersB · brothersB · nestC · restC · seenD · greenD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The sun does arise, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| And make happy the skies; | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| The merry bells ring | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| To welcome the Spring; | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| The skylark and thrush, | 5 | ·/··· |
| The birds of the bush, | 5 | ····· |
| Sing louder around | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| To the bells' cheerful sound; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| While our sports shall be seen | 6 | ·/···· |
| On the echoing Green. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Old John, with white hair, | 5 | ····· |
| Does laugh away care, | 5 | ··˘/· |
| Sitting under the oak, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Among the old folk. | 5 | ····· |
| They laugh at our play, | 5 | ···/· |
| And soon they all say, | 5 | ····· |
| "Such, such were the joys | 5 | ····· |
| When we all--girls and boys-- | 6 | ······ |
| In our youth-time were seen | 6 | ·/···· |
| On the echoing Green." | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Till the little ones, weary, | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| No more can be merry: | 6 | ····/˘ |
| The sun does descend, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| And our sports have an end. | 6 | ·/···· |
| Round the laps of their mothers | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Many sisters and brothers, | 6 | //˘·/˘ |
| Like birds in their nest, | 5 | ····· |
| Are ready for rest, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| And sport no more seen | 5 | ····· |
| On the darkening green. | 5 | ··/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.