Summary

The first poem of Songs of Experience, “Introduction,” begins with the speaker petitioning the reader to listen to the voice of the Bard who knows the past, present, and future, and who has “heard/the Holy Word/that walked among the ancient trees” (30). In the third stanza, the Bard’s voice is heard calling for the earth to return as the morning begins to “rise from the slumbrous mass” (30). The bard then petitions the earth to “turn away no more” (30).

In “Earth’s Answer” the earth responds to the call of the bard from “Introduction” stating she is “prisoned on watery shore” and “chained in night” (31). She also says she hears “the father of the ancient men,” who she describes as selfish, cruel, and jealous (31). In the fourth stanza the poem shifts to the earth asking the bard a series of questions, such...