Different Greens in Life
“The Echoing Green” by William Blake, from the songs of Innocence. “The Echoing Green” is a poem about a day, a year and people’s lives. This poem includes the youth and the death; the beautiful and sad parts of life. William Blake uses a mirror in the poem to make the poem is symmetrical and make the readers know how he feels about the change in people’s lives. He also uses a lot of physical things to signify the feeling of birth and death, happiness and sadness. The whole poem doesn’t have any words about death, but at the end of the poem, the readers can feel the sorrow easily and correctly.
Everything is cheerful in the first stanza. Like the early morning, the sun just rises, the air is fres., The people are in good mood and things are all clean and pretty. It’s a happy beginning of a day and also a year. The spring with birds singing and the flowers are colorful with good smell. “The merry bells ring/ To welcome the spring.” (3-4) William Blake uses the merry bells to describe how happy are the people in the spring. The readers can imagine the beautiful fresh green with different kinds of flowers everywhere. The word “spring” doesn’t just means one of the seasons’ in a year, and also means the birth of a new life. “While our sports shall be seen/ On the echoing green.” (9-10) At the end of stanza one, William Blake highlights the sense of the spring that people are all happy and full of energy. He also points out the green is not just normal, it’s all around everyone. Just like the birth, no one miss it and all the people feel happy about it.
In the second stanza, things start to change. The setting changes into an old man with white and gray hair talking about his own story. The people stop laughing and the birds stop laughing. The world becomes more quiet than spring and people stop playing around but just sitting and listen to the old story. The readers can know something different between stanza one and two.
‘Such, such were the joys
When we all, girls and boys
In our youth-time were seen
On the echoing green.’(17-20)
William Blake doesn’t just write about what he thinks about old, but uses an old man with white hair to talk about his own story. The writer convinces the readers by letting someone talk about himself, and this really makes the readers think about the time in their lives that with green all around. As the old man thinks about his youth time, the readers know that childhood is filled with joy and fun. It also makes the readers think about their own beautiful days. In the last line of stanza two, William Blake uses “On the echoing green.” again to connect these two stanzas and make it represent “youth” and “beautiful days”.
In the third stanza, the setting changes to the descending sun. Everything is not that happy anymore. The color is turning dark and the world is silence. It’s not just gray like stanza two but really dark in this stanza. “Many sisters and brothers,/ Like birds in their nest,/ Are ready for rest;” (line 21-22) When the sun descends, there’s no more things to expect but just darkness. Nothing can be cheerful and no one can laugh anymore. The readers can imagine the square in the middle of the village that is empty. The old man who told the story in stanza two left, and there’s no one in the square any more. The readers can also feel the blank and the loneliness. William Blakes clearly points out that eveyone is already tired and need to start a new life. Just like a person who is dying and going to have the next life. Maybe it’s in the other spaces, like heaven of hell, but they have to leave this world to start their lives. “And sport no more seen/ on the darkening green.” (Line 29-30) The fresh green turn to dark. The writer doesn’t write that the season changes, but the readers can feel that the fall and winter are coming. The leaves change to red and fall down from the tree. Everything seems sad and there’s so more potency in the world. All things are dying and there’s no hope or desire that people can expect. The readers can feel that in the beginning, the setting is full of children’s laugh, but in these two sentences, the world becomes quiet and silent.
In “The Echoing Green”, all the things happened so fast. The changes occur in a day and a season. In the first stanza, the sun rises and the spring comes; at the end of the poem, the sun set and the spring is over. The writer uses the way to make the readers feel the life convert every second. The youth and beautiful days like the morning and the death comes at the night. William Blake makes readers feel that every second in their lives is important. In “The Echoing Green”, we can see different parts of life, the writer catches every moment in the life exactly to make the readers clearly know the changes. As the time passes in the poem, the readers just like viewing someone’s life. Everything is so lively and true that will makes readers’ mood change with the poem from happy to sad, from colorful to black, then everything becomes dead and sad.