Analysis of If It Is True What the Prophets Write
William Blake 1757 (Soho) – 1827 (London)
If it is true, what the Prophets write,
That the heathen gods are all stocks and stones,
Shall we, for the sake of being polite,
Feed them with the juice of our marrow-bones?
And if Bezaleel and Aholiab drew
What the finger of God pointed to their view,
Shall we suffer the Roman and Grecian rods
To compel us to worship them as gods?
They stole them from the temple of the Lord
And worshipp'd them that they might make inspirèd art abhorr'd;
The wood and stone were call'd the holy things,
And their sublime intent given to their kings.
All the atonements of Jehovah spurn'd,
And criminals to sacrifices turn'd.
Scheme | ABAB CCDD EE FFGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111110101 1010111101 1110111001 11101110101 011011 10101110111 11100100101 1011110111 1111010101 0101111111101 0101010101 01010110111 10110101 010011001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 608 |
Words | 113 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 2, 4 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 121 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 28 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 31, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 114 Views
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"If It Is True What the Prophets Write" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39111/if-it-is-true-what-the-prophets-write>.
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