THE ECHOING GREEN

                                           -WILLIAM BLAKE

Alliteration

The repetition of usually initial(consonant)sounds in two or more neighbouring words or syllables. Or the use of the same sound (consonant) at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

eg: ‘The birds of the bush.’

‘While our sports shall be seen.’

1. Read the lines from the poem ‘The Echoing Green’ and answer the questions that follows.

Till the little ones weary

No more can be merry;

The sun does descend,

And our sports have an end.

Round the laps of their mother

Many sisters and brothers,

Like birds in their nest,

Are ready for rest;

And sport no more seen,

On the darkening green.

1. What time of the day is mentioned here? Identify and write the lines.

Ans: Evening

2. Pick out a pair of rhyming words from the lines given above.

Ans: Weary-Merry, Descend-End, Nest-Rest, Seen-Green.

3. Identify the line which use alliteration.

Ans: And sport no more seen.

4. What does the speaker mean by ‘the darkening green’?

Ans: ‘The darkening green’ refers to the end of the day.

2. Appreciating a poem

The sun does arise

And makes happy the skies.

The merry bells ring

To welcome the spring.

The skylark and thrush

The bird of the bush,

Sing louder around

To the bells’ cheerful sound.

1. Find out any two pairs of rhyming words from these lines.

Ans: arise-skies, ring-spring, thrush-bush, around -sound

2. Pick out any two visual images used in these lines.

Ans: “The sun does arise , And makes happy the skies.”

“The skylark and thrush,The birds of the bush”

3. Cite an example of alliteration.

Ans: The birds of the bush.