Lyric Poem · Nature
Laughing Song
1When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,
2And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;
3When the air does laugh with our merry wit,
4And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Laughing Song” by William Blake — quilloak.com/poems/laughing-song
Quick facts
- Poem
- Laughing Song
- Poet
- William Blake
- Length
- 12 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 12 lines · 3 quatrains
- End rhyme
- ABCC in 67% of the stanzas. The remaining stanzas vary, often through slant rhyme.
- Line length
- Lines run 9-11 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- William Blake1757–1827
- Source record
- PoetryDBLaughing Song by william-blake, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 2b2aed5ba3e28dc7…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.