Earth's Answer

"Earth's Answer" is a poem by William Blake within his larger collection called Songs of Innocence and of Experience (published 1794).

Prisoned on watery shore, Starry jealousy does keep my den Cold and hoar; Weeping o’er, I hear the father of the ancient men.

Earth then gives a series of questions, asking if Spring is budding flowers and if the sower and plowman are working by night (16-20).

[4] This signals to the reader that the poet intends to reflect the "traditional view of the Fall as a movement away from happiness, completeness, and Divinity".

[4] Keeping this in mind, as readers transition to "Earth's Answer", it becomes clear that Blake attacks “official religion throughout Songs of Experience” by using the “Christian theme and subduing it completely to his own unorthodox purpose”.

[4] Ackland notes that when the Bard admonishes Earth to rise, it seems cruel primarily because "through his failure to intervene... he is responsible for her state".

[4] For Songs of Innocence and Experience, Blake used a method called illuminated printing, in which he had complete control over both his poems and the illustrations.

[3] The Norton textbook states that when it comes to reading this illuminated manuscript: "To read a Blake poem without the pictures is to miss something important: Blake places words and images in a relationship that is sometimes mutually enlightening and sometimes turbulent, and that relationship is an aspect of the poem's argument.

In his article "Blake's Deep Ecology", Lussier states that the negative reaction has been centered around scholars fearing of analyzing a poem in an anachronistic fashion by applying "a contemporary political view to past poets and their poetry.

"[5] However, the interdisciplinary approach of ecological criticism is also vital, as it "directly responds to a physical crisis in which all are implicated and requires us to rethink our intellectual enterprises and institutions.