“Earth's Answer” Summary

“Earth's Answer” Themes

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  Organized Religion, Desire, and Oppression

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Earth's Answer”

• Lines 1-5

  Earth rais'd up her head,
  From the darkness dread & drear.
  Her light fled,
  Stony dread!
  And her locks cover'd with grey despair.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-10

  Prison'd on watry shore
  Starry Jealousy does keep my den
  Cold and hoar
  Weeping o'er
  I hear the Father of the ancient men

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 11-15

  Selfish father of men
  Cruel, jealous, selfish fear
  Can delight
  Chain'd in night
  The virgins of youth and morning bear.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 16-20

  Does spring hide its joy
  When buds and blossoms grow?
  Does the sower?
  Sow by night?
  Or the plowman in darkness plow?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-25

  Break this heavy chain,
  That does freeze my bones around
  Selfish! vain!
  Eternal bane!
  That free Love with bondage bound.

  

  

  

  

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“Earth's Answer” Symbols

• 

  Tending the Land

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“Earth's Answer” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Asyndeton

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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“Earth's Answer” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Drear
• Den
• Hoar
• O'er
• Father of the ancient men
• Bear
• Sower
• Plowman
• Vain
• Bane
• Free Love
• Bondage bound

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Earth's Answer”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Earth's Answer” Speaker

“Earth's Answer” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Earth's Answer”

More “Earth's Answer” Resources

• External Resources

  • Blake's Artwork for Earth's Answer — Check out the poem as originally set out by Blake. 

  • Songs of Innocence and of Experience — Check out the full book as Blake originally published it, including his beautiful artwork.

  • Blake's Biography — Learn more about Blake's life and work via the website of the British Library. 

  • Blake's Radicalism — An excerpt from a documentary in which writer Iain Sinclair discusses Blake's radicalism. 

  • A Blake Documentary — Listen to Blake scholars discussing the poet's life and work. 

• LitCharts on Other Poems by William Blake

  • A Dream

  • Ah! Sun-flower

  • A Poison Tree

  • Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)

  • Holy Thursday (Songs of Innocence)

  • Infant Joy

  • Infant Sorrow

  • Introduction (Songs of Innocence)

  • London

  • Nurse's Song (Songs of Experience)

  • Nurse's Song (Songs of Innocence)

  • The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)

  • The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Innocence)

  • The Clod and the Pebble

  • The Divine Image

  • The Ecchoing Green

  • The Fly

  • The Garden of Love

  • The Human Abstract

  • The Lamb

  • The Little Black Boy

  • The Little Vagabond

  • The School Boy

  • The Sick Rose

  • The Tyger

  • To Autumn

  • To the Evening Star