Analysis of I Rose Up at the Dawn of Day

William Blake 1757 (Soho) – 1827 (London)



I rose up at the dawn of day--
`Get thee away! get thee away!
Pray'st thou for riches? Away! away!
This is the Throne of Mammon grey.'

Said I: This, sure, is very odd;
I took it to be the Throne of God.
For everything besides I have:
It is only for riches that I can crave.

I have mental joy, and mental health,
And mental friends, and mental wealth;
I've a wife I love, and that loves me;
I've all but riches bodily.

I am in God's presence night and day,
And He never turns His face away;
The accuser of sins by my side doth stand,
And he holds my money-bag in his hand.

For my worldly things God makes him pay,
And he'd pay for more if to him I would pray;
And so you may do the worst you can do;
Be assur'd, Mr. Devil, I won't pray to you.

Then if for riches I must not pray,
God knows, I little of prayers need say;
So, as a church is known by its steeple,
If I pray it must be for other people.

He says, if I do not worship him for a God,
I shall eat coarser food, and go worse shod;
So, as I don't value such things as these,
You must do, Mr. Devil, just as God please.


Scheme AAAA BBXX CCDD AAEE AAFF AAGG BBHH
Poetic Form Quatrain  (86%)
Metre 11110111 11011101 1111100101 1101111 11111101 111110111 1100111 11101101111 111010101 01010101 101110111 11110100 110110101 011011101 00101111111 0111101011 111011111 01111111111 0111101111 101101011111 111101111 111101111 1101111110 11111111010 111111101101 1111010111 1111101111 11110101111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,056
Words 229
Sentences 16
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 113
Words per stanza (avg) 32
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

1:10 min read
279

William Blake

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

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