The Echoing Green Lyrics
A whole day of play on the green, from the sun rising and the bells ringing to the tired little ones going home to their mothers. William Blake's poem has three verses of ten lines and was published in 1789.
The Echoing Green
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 bells' 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 brothers,
Like birds in their nest,
Are ready for rest,
And sport no more seen
On the darkening green.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-echoing-green/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- William Blake
- First published
- 1789
- Tune
- Read slowly and warmly, as the light fades through the verses
- Best for ages
- 4 to 10 years
What Does The Echoing Green Mean?
The three verses are the morning, the afternoon and the evening of one day. In the first, the sun rises, the bells ring to welcome spring, and the skylark and thrush sing louder. The children's games are about to begin on the green. In the second, an old man called John sits under the oak with the other old folk, laughing at the play. They say that they did the same on this green when they were young. In the third, the little ones grow weary, the sun goes down, and the brothers and sisters curl up round their mothers' laps like birds in a nest, ready for rest, while the green darkens.
Blake does not say the old and the young are different. The old people see themselves in the children, and the children will become the old people. That cycle is what the "echo" in the title carries: the sound of play that has gone round on the same green for years.
Some old wording: a green is an open grassy space shared for play, sports means games, and "the sun does arise" is an old way of saying the sun rises.
History and Origin
William Blake (1757 to 1827) was an English poet and artist. The Echoing Green is in Songs of Innocence, which he published in 1789, and which he later joined with a darker set, Songs of Experience, in 1794. Blake made the books himself, etching the words and pictures together on copper plates and colouring the printed pages by hand.
Learning Activities
- Three times of day: read one verse at breakfast, one at lunch and one at bedtime, and talk about what changed in the sky.
- Draw the green: paint the sun, the oak, old John and the children, then the same green at dusk.
- Spot the birds: list the birds in the poem (skylark, thrush) and listen for a real bird outdoors.
- Family games: ask a grandparent what game they played outdoors as a child, then try it.