central idea of poem "The Echoing Green" for grade 7
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This poem can be interpreted in many ways. The first interpretation relies on the fact that this poem was included in Blake’s poetry collection known as Hence it should not surprise us that the green is a metaphor for innocence. Children play here in the lap of nature without any worries, for they have not yet experienced the harshness of life. They are still under the care and protection of their mothers. They are also more in tune with nature now than they will ever be again. As they grow older, culture and civilization will take the place of nature in exercising a formative influence on them. However, the green is not just a place where young children play. It is also a place where old men come to relax and leave behind their worries. Thus the green also represents a higher innocence that Blake calls ‘Beulah’. This means that after man has gone through the stages of innocence and of experience after he has seen the world both in its beauty and its cruelty, he is able to find an inner sanctum of peace in his share of knowledge. He learns to take both the joys and the sorrows that life offers in his path, and react to them with a certain amount of stoicism. Neither does joy overwhelm him, nor does sorrow depress him. He maintains an equilibrium in order to get through the day.
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