"The Echoing Green" is from Blake’s "Songs of Innocence", however don’t be fooled, the poem has a hidden darker side to its "Innocence". In "The Echoing Green" the first stanza is very positive, with the sun shining, for example "The sun does arise" . It describes it as where "The merry bells ring" and where "The sun does arise". The structure of the poem is in a nursery rhyme format, which suggests the echoing green is very innocent, and a very delightful place with singing birds such as "The skylark and thrush". However, the echoing green is very vulnerable to experience. This is expressed in the last stanza, where all the fun and "joys" end on the green, and "No more can be merry". "The Echoing green" is turned into the "darkening green", where "sport is no more seen" and the "sun does descend".
The poem is considered very symbolic of the Industrial Revolution and its effects. Blake lived in London for the
majority of his life and as a results he witnessed the evil effects of it. It is through "The Echoing Green" that he compares what it was like before the Industrial Revolution, and he shows how it ruined life for him in London. Blake also expresses the idea that innocence never lasts as it is gradually over run by experience, and this is significant of the Industrial Revolution.
Example Essays Home
