the ecchoing green (I)

overall meaning: 

1. nature is happy and active.

2. the people are carefree and reminicent.

3. its night time and the children are sleeping.

key features of the poem:

• there is a sematic feild of joy throughout the poem, ' happy', 'merry', 'cheerful' and  'laugh' which sets the overall tone of the poem.
• 'the sky-lark and thrush' are both birds which has connotations of freedom adding to the carefree nature of the poem and the people that it contains.
• the noun phrase 'old John, with white hair'  and 'girls and boys' show thre range of people in attendance as they are opposite ends of the age spectrum. 'old' is often associated with being close to death while 'boys and girls' represents life and youth as they are nouns that we…