The Ecchoing Green Essay --

William Blake is a poet most noted for the engravings that accompany his works of poetry. These engravings included with the poems help to depict the meaning of the poems. However, at times the engravings he includes with his poem can lead to complications for the interpreter of the poem. There are a multitude of variations of the same engraving that accompany a poem, all of them originals; some of these engravings compliment the poem, while others complicate the poem. One example of this occurrence, where one engraving may compliment the poem and the other complicates it, is in William Blake’s work â€Å"The Ecchoing Green† which can be found in Blake’s Songs of Innocence. The important thing to recognize is that regardless of whether the poem is further complicated or simplified because of the image, the poem and its accompanying image are still evoking thought, and discussion from the reader. When reading the poem alone, without the engraving two different interpretations were found. The first one is that â€Å"The Echoing Green† is a detailed exploration on the cycle of life. Blake uses natural imagery to compensate for the natural growth in a person, physically and mentally. In many cases he uses a rural landscape to compliment the innocence of the 'green' how child play is completely acceptable and distances us from the urbanized world of pollution and experience. In literature, spring is often associated with growth, and here we can see that spring is the season present. Because of this the reader can link spring to both the growth of nature and to the growth of the children described in the poem. The growth of the children can be viewed as a positive aspect because of its link with spring; because winter is usually linked to de... ...ring this poem with its engraving a few things are learned, the first learned thing is that there can be multiple interpretations within a poem. The second is that depending on which engraving one was reading the poem with their interpretations of the poem will differ. These differences are caused because the engravings hold a large influence on what is pulled from the poem and how it is interpreted. Whether Blake did this on purpose on not, one does not know, however it can be appreciated that the variety within this one poem allows for many different interpretations and support for those different interpretations. Whether the engraving is complimenting or complicating the poem is regardless, the important part is the fact that the poem and engraving together are evoking multiple emotions from the audience and creating more thought than either one would on its own.