William Blake was a interesting person. A quote from Wikipedia: Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language."
The following poem attests to his vision.
Earth's Answer
Earth raised up her head
From 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 den
Cold and hoar;
Weeping o're,
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 sower
Sow 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.'
This is our true home. We were not made for the Moon, Mars or space. If we do not have Earth, we have nothing, thus would blogging and writing cease. Go gently, take only what you need, and when you depart, leave her as you found her.
Hi Bish!
ReplyDeleteWow, I really loved this post. Thank you for sharing that poem. So powerful...
Thank you for connecting Earth to Blake.
ReplyDeleteI loved it. Both your thoughts and your lines. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteA pleasure to read this wonderful poem.
ReplyDeleteNice to meet you through the challenge :) I'm impressed with your background, and hope to learn more about the place you grew up in :) Great post too! I will return! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful poem and stirring images of our home.
ReplyDeleteToo bad the letter E didn't come on Earth Day, as it is also my birthday, but I'll take this post as my present.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful as always, Bish.
Great post. I love the image of earth from the moon and have created a very large acrylic painting with that image as the focal point. Thanks for sharing so much!
ReplyDeleteMonti
http://marymontaguesikes.blogspot.com/
great post and I love the pictures
ReplyDelete"Eternal bane" Great line!
ReplyDeletehttp://summersvoice.blogspot.com/
Too many people forget that there's no escaping Earth if we mess it up. Puts me in mind of the Martian Chronicles, and nuclear power disasters. We are victims of ourselves, are we not?
ReplyDeleteLeave it to the smart human beings to mess everything up. We swim in the sharks ocean, yet kill them if they snap an arm off. It's their place.
ReplyDeleteWe throw our trash out the car window and our plastic in the woods. We say it's so the birds can make their nests. Phooey.
Please let us care for our earth. This nuclear thing in Japan...has it made anyone see the light? Probably not, Bish. Sad.
Lovely post. You do your part. (((hugs)))
I'd never looked at space exploration in a less than positive light until I came across this poem. I think colonization is still the way to go, but I agree that Earth is truly our home, and that to lose it is to lose ourselves.
ReplyDeleteWe are the stewards of our home Earth and need to take care of things here. Glad you honored Blake today. I guess I became a big Blake fan in junior high school. I like the mystical aspect of his writing.
ReplyDeleteContrary to my usual practice of subscribing to comments, to save time during this early part of the challenge I will not be doing so at this time. If you want to respond to my comment, please email me directly from your email notification for the comment.
Thanks. And I truly appreciate your efforts.
Lee
Tossing It Out
Twitter hashtag: #atozchallenge
Wonderful post. I found Blake back in the early days of college. I appreciate you honoring him and paying homage to our home.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. I love all the pictures. I wonder if William Blake lived today and published his works as an ebook, would we have ignored him or praised him?
ReplyDeleteNancy
N. R. Williams, The Treasures of Carmelidrium.
William Blake was the first poet I discovered that I liked. Nice poem.
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful Bish--the poem as well as your closing words. Thank you for this.
ReplyDeleteThe Earth is a beautiful thing! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteLove that poem! What a great post for mother earth :)
ReplyDeleteWonderful tribute to Mother Earth. The USVI are one of my favorite places on the earth... spent lots of time on St. Croix!
ReplyDeleteE is for ENOUGH
Oh, I just love this line, "Go gently, take only what you need, and when you depart, leave her as you found her." So beautiful!
ReplyDeleteWonderful post! I really enjoyed the poem. :)
ReplyDeleteThose pictures really do add some depth to your post. Thanks for sharing the beautiful poem.
ReplyDeleteNutschell
www.thewritingnut.com
The continuation of blogging and writing is a good reason to save the earth :)
ReplyDeleteBlake is one of my favourites. Great post!
ReplyDeleteSuch a meaningful post and very timely. We should all take heed to your warning of "go gently." It's a pleasure to meet you.
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