Language and style

Addressing the language and style of “The Echoing Green” by William Blake will provide you with important analytical elements for discussing the poem.

Playing with the language

The poet plays with language in this lyrical text through the use of metaphors, personifications, and symbolical language. The sun in the poem “make happy the skies” (p. 202, l. 2), as if they were persons. The same goes for the bells, which are “merry” (p. 203, l. 3).

Then, the poet uses the metaphors of the “Ecchoing Green” (p. 202, l. 10, l. 21) and the “darkening Green” (p. 203, l. 10) to suggest how during day time the sounds of the children playing are echoed by nature and the way nature simply grows dark when the children go to their homes and the sun sets. These two expressions can also be interpreted as metaphors for youth and old age. 

Furthermore, many elements are symbolical in the poem, such as the sports which represent vitality, and their end (p. 203, l. 4) which can be interpreted as the end of life or of a ...