Lyric Poem · Nature
Earth's Answer
1Earth raised up her head
2From the darkness dread and drear,
3Her light fled,
4Stony, dread,
5And her locks covered with grey despair.
6"Prisoned on watery shore,
7Starry jealousy does keep my den
8Cold and hoar;
9Weeping o'er,
10I hear the father of the ancient men.
11"Selfish father of men!
12Cruel, jealous, selfish fear!
13Can delight,
14Chained in night,
15The virgins of youth and morning bear?
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Earth's Answer” by William Blake — quilloak.com/poems/earths-answer
Quick facts
- Poem
- Earth's Answer
- Poet
- William Blake
- Length
- 25 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature, Spring, Love
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
- 25 lines · 5 quintains
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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
- PoetryDBEarth's Answer 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 e8d550fa80a21b58…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.