Analysis of You Don't Believe

William Blake 1757 (Soho) – 1827 (London)



You don't believe -- I won't attempt to make ye:
You are asleep -- I won't attempt to wake ye.
Sleep on! sleep on! while in your pleasant dreams
Of Reason you may drink of Life's clear streams.
Reason and Newton, they are quite two things;
For so the swallow and the sparrow sings.

Reason says `Miracle': Newton says `Doubt.'
Aye! that's the way to make all Nature out.
`Doubt, doubt, and don't believe without experiment':
That is the very thing that Jesus meant,
When He said `Only believe! believe and try!
Try, try, and never mind the reason why!'


Scheme AABBCC DDDDEE
Poetic Form
Metre 11011101111 11011101111 1111101101 1101111111 1001011111 1101000101 10111011 1101111101 110101010100 1101011101 1111010101 1101010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 548
Words 104
Sentences 12
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 6, 6
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 209
Words per stanza (avg) 50
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 17, 2023

32 sec read
316

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter and printmaker. more…

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