Laughing Song, when the green woods laugh

Laughing Song belongs to Songs of Innocence, published in 1789. Blake set his poems in hand-lettered plates surrounded by his own drawings, so words and images were made in one operation. Mary, Susan and Emily, named in the second stanza, appear nowhere else in the collection. Project Gutenberg carries the full set.

Where this text comes fromThe eight lines you copy are all build-up: four clauses opening with when, three of them answered by a line starting and, and no main verb anywhere. The poem’s answer, an invitation to come and be merry, sits in a third stanza left out here, so what you type is a sentence still waiting to finish. Blake set the words by hand on the plate rather than in type, but every capital here is where any printer would set it: at the head of each line, on the three names, and on the Ha that opens the sung refrain.

What you might not noticeGreen is the only color named anywhere in the poem, and all three mentions fall inside the eight lines you type: the green woods, the green hill, and the lively green of the meadows. The third stanza, left out here, names no color at all. Source

What it trainsSixty-six words in a single sentence, with three semicolons carrying the repeated structure and only three commas besides. Twelve capitals: eight line openings, the three names Mary, Susan, and Emily, and the Ha of the refrain. A single opening quote and its closing partner appear once each, and the plain apostrophe stands for both, so one key covers the pair. One exclamation mark. The longest word is grasshopper, eleven letters, and it sits in the run of clauses where the repetition has already dulled attention.

Read the full text at the publisher: Project Gutenberg