Earth's Answer
Earth raised up her headFrom the darkness dread and drear,Her light fled,Stony, dread,And her locks covered with grey despair.
"Prisoned on watery shore,Starry jealousy does keep my denCold and hoar;Weeping o'er,I hear the father of the ancient men.
"Selfish father of men!Cruel, jealous, selfish fear!Can delight,Chained in night,The virgins of youth and morning bear?
"Does spring hide its joy,When buds and blossoms grow?Does the sowerSow by night,Or the plowman in darkness plough?
"Break this heavy chain,That does freeze my bones around!Selfish, vain,Eternal bane,That free love with bondage bound."
Words in this poem
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- hoar v. t.
- To become moldy or musty. [AS. harian to grow gray.]
- sower n.
- One who, or that which, sows.
- bane v. t.
- To be the bane of; to ruin. Fuller.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Earth's Answer is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of William Blake, Project Gutenberg ebook #574; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Blake, Earth's Answer, in Poems of William Blake (1783–1794), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #574, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/blake-poems/earth-s-answer.html, id L02001.
Form and metre
Earth's Answer is 25 lines in 5 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is trochaic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic dimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-AA- headA · drear · fledA · dreadA · despair
- 2 ABA-B shoreA · denB · hoarA · o'er · menB
- 3 -ABBA men · fearA · delightB · nightB · bearA
- 4 -A--A joy · growA · sower · night · ploughA
- 5 ABAAB chainA · aroundB · vainA · baneA · boundB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Earth raised up her head | 5 | ····· |
| From the darkness dread and drear, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Her light fled, | 3 | ··· |
| Stony, dread, | 3 | /˘· |
| And her locks covered with grey despair. | 9 | ···/˘··˘/ |
| "Prisoned on watery shore, | 7 | /˘·/˘˘· |
| Starry jealousy does keep my den | 9 | /˘/˘˘···· |
| Cold and hoar; | 3 | ··· |
| Weeping o'er, | 3 | /˘· |
| I hear the father of the ancient men. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| "Selfish father of men! | 6 | /˘/˘·· |
| Cruel, jealous, selfish fear! | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Can delight, | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Chained in night, | 3 | ··· |
| The virgins of youth and morning bear? | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| "Does spring hide its joy, | 5 | ····· |
| When buds and blossoms grow? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Does the sower | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Sow by night, | 3 | ··· |
| Or the plowman in darkness plough? | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| "Break this heavy chain, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| That does freeze my bones around! | 7 | ······· |
| Selfish, vain, | 3 | /˘· |
| Eternal bane, | 4 | ˘/˘· |
| That free love with bondage bound." | 7 | ····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.