Examine The Two Poems The Prelude And The Echoing Green English Literature Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

There is also a slight tint of religious sentiment to the extract, where the personified and feminine Nature with "her fearless visiting's, or those that come with soft alarm" (Line 352-3) is perceived by Wordsworth as something heavenly with God-like functions to lead, tempt and punish the man, "as best might suit her aim." (Line 356) Celebrating Nature and considering man as part of nature, guided and learning from its experience through the process of self-discovery is the main objective of The Prelude as a whole and the extract in particular.

"The Echoing Green" by William Blake is the second poem to be analysed in this essay. The poem is part of Blake's series the Songs of Innocence, hence the choice of its structure, which comprises of three stanzas made up of ten lines. The rhyming pattern of the poem follows the AABB scheme, where the first line rhymes with the second one, the third one with the fourth and so on. The narration is on behalf of a child, who is describing the ordinary day in the village and the events that take place during that conventional day. The use of the perspective is of great importance to the form and moreover the language of the poem, which strikes for its simplicity. Short, simple words and vocabulary put into small sentences, which are further neatly organised is short lines describe the children playing in the field on a warm spring day. From the first lines it becomes clear that the poem is going to be symbolic, with a deeper meaning behind it and yet an easy read. What Blake could be suggesting when he writes the lines "The sun does arise" (http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1950618&pageno=2, Line 1) and "To welcome the spring" (Line 4) is the beginning of a new day and the harmony between the cycles of nature and childhood, with the energy of the sun compared to the vitality of youth, when the children play games on the green field. The imagery of nature with the skylark singing seems to be in harmony with the children "sporting" on the green and corresponds with the notion of continuity through which the generations are joined together through nature.

The word "echoing" in the title and at the end of each verse is used metaphorically to describe the way the life echoes through various aspects and how the cycle of the day echoes the cycle of humans life - starting from the dawn which represents our childhood, the day which is our adulthood and the dusk that symbolises the end of life. It is important to mention the change in tone between the first and last couplets - from joyful and happy when "the sun does rise" (Line 1) to melancholic and "weary" at the end of the poem. The use of contrasting adjectives , such as "happy" and "cheerful"  and later  "weary" and "darkening" add to the nostalgia of childhood's innocence if compared to the gloomy perspective of death, just as it happens with nature.

As seen from the analysis above, Wordsworth and Blake through their poems contemplate similar themes of youth and nature relying on their past childhood experiences. Though similar in content and written within the same historical timeline, on the dawning of industrial revolution (hence the melancholically colouring to the context), the two poems vary greatly as far as the poetic techniques are concerned. First and foremost, the choice of perspective largely predetermines the form and language used in the poems. The simple vocabulary of "The Echoing Green" complements the fact that the author uses a child, as the voice of his poem.  In contrast with the simplicity of "The Echoing Green", the extract from The Prelude employs a more sophisticated language, because Wordsworth is both the author and the voice of the poem. Because of the fact that the poem is more mature in its context, the author allows the use of illusive imagery, including metaphors, poetic inversions and iambic pentameters to reach out to his audience. Rhyme, as an important stylistic device, contributes to a lighter, joyful tone of Blake's poem. Whereas the point of view inspired by the first person narrative used by the adult Wordsworth creates a more formal tone in the extract. The form of "The Echoing Green" is perfectly balanced and resembles a sing a song structure, where three stanzas clearly represent the different time of day described. The extract from The Prelude follows a more complicated structure; however, it is also divided into paragraphs, which make quite a distinct block of text - each one telling a different story. 

As with all written fiction the author's main objective always remains to engage the reader into the story, to achieve this effect, much consideration needs to be put into making the choice of form, language and the use of stylistic devices when creating a piece of fictional writing.