In William Blake’s Songs of Experience, Introduction, we come across the word “return” in line 11, and then we come across the word “turn” in both lines 16 and 17. The fact that the word return has several meanings, and that the following usage of “turn” would be read differently according to the contextual uses of “return”, leads to a number of different interpretations of this short poem.
The word “return” in line 11 could be read as having the definition “Go back to (a particular state or activity)” (OED 1.1). Then, consequently, the context of the poem calls for Earth to drive back to her earlier state, when men and women still heard the voice of God. Thus “turn” would fall under this narrative and the last stanza would read as a plead