Songs Of Innocence

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 lounder around
• To the bells' chearful 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 & 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 on end.
• Round the laps of their mothers
• Many sisters and brothers,
• Like birds in their nest,
• Are ready for rest,
• And sports no more seen
• On the darkening Green.