{"id":473,"date":"2023-04-19T04:06:18","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T04:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/?p=473"},"modified":"2023-04-19T04:06:22","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T04:06:22","slug":"where-the-color-green-fits-into-childhood-and-murder-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/2023\/04\/19\/where-the-color-green-fits-into-childhood-and-murder-at-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Where The Color Green Fits Into Childhood and Murder at Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wanted to put \u201cThe Echoing Green\u201d by William Blake and \u201cThe Haunted Beach\u201d by Mary Robinson in conversation with one another. Although both poems\u2019 themes and ideas differ greatly from one another\u2013 with \u201cThe Echoing Green\u201d focusing on the contrast between youth and growing old, and\u00a0 \u201cThe Haunted Beach\u201d focusing on a Fisherman\u2019s guilt for committing a murder\u2013 both poems do have a key connection: the color green.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Both poems use the color green as sanctuary from loneliness. In \u201cThe Haunted Beach\u201d we are brought through the journey of a Fisherman\u2019s guilt. It is a chaotic guilt that is described in each stanza, but every stanza but one end with the line \u201cWhere the green billows played\u201d. This line tells the readers that all of this guilt and turmoil \u2013 along with the actual murder itself\u2013 takes place in front of the sea. As the moon reflects of the Ocean\u2019s waves, the water looks green. This green is the only consistent thought that the Fisherman has. The ocean is an aspect of nature that the Fisherman is dependant on guiding him in his guilt. The Fisherman is isolated in complete solitude as he deals with his guilt alone. The repetition of the \u201cgreen billows\u201d displays the fact that nature provides sanctuary from loneliness. Although he cannot grasp fully what he has done, the one thing he can grasp is that this big aspect of nature lies in front of him, almost alive, as it is radiating the color green. This personification of the Ocean in describing it as \u201cplaying\u201d is similar to the personification of nature in \u201cThe Echoing Green\u201d. Both poems utilize green as this anchor point, a sort of symbol of consistency. The only thing that is consistent in both of these poems, despite everything else changing in the poem, is the color green.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The echoing green is described as the land that the characters and animals are playing on. However, by putting both poems in conversation with one another, we can begin to understand this \u201cechoing green\u201d as nature as a whole. Similar to the<\/span> Haunted Beach\u2019s <\/span><\/i>repetition of, \u201cWhere the green billows play!\u201d, the<\/span> Echoing Green<\/span><\/i>\u2019s repetition of \u201cOn the echoing green\u201d at the end of each stanza produces the same affect of consistency and a sense of comfort for the speakers in the poems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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I think the most significant place that this conversation impacts \u201cThe Echoing Green\u201d is in the very last line, when the speaker says, \u201cOn the darkening green\u201d instead of \u201cOn the echoing green\u201d. As an individual poem, this line is understood as describing the grass at the end of the day, after the children have finished playing and the sun is slowly setting to cause the green to become darker. However, in conversation the the green in \u201cThe Haunted Beach\u201d, this line emphasizes the human connection to nature as they grow old. This is brought out by comparing the way that the Fisherman utilizes the human connection to nature to guide him through the chaos of his guilt. The echoing green speaker uses nature to find comfort in the chaos of growing old.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Viewing the \u201cechoing green\u201d as nature (as a whole) is saying that nature grows old with you. This emphasizes how the Earth is growing old alongside of the speaker. It represents the comfort by Nature against the loneliness of old age. This is shown by the lines, \u201cMany sisters and brothers\/ Like birds in their nest, \/ Are ready for rest,\u201d Everyone around the speaker is ready to leave. Nature, although still growing old with the speaker, is still there. Despite Nature also growing old with you it will always remain green. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wanted to put \u201cThe Echoing Green\u201d by William Blake and \u201cThe Haunted Beach\u201d by Mary Robinson in conversation with one another. Although both poems\u2019 themes and ideas differ greatly from one another\u2013 with \u201cThe Echoing Green\u201d focusing on the contrast between youth and growing old, and\u00a0 \u201cThe Haunted Beach\u201d focusing on a Fisherman\u2019s guilt … Continue reading Where The Color Green Fits Into Childhood and Murder at Sea<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}