Analysis of I see the Four-fold Man
William Blake 1757 (Soho) – 1827 (London)
I see the Four-fold Man, The Humanity in deadly sleep
And its fallen Emanation, the Spectre and its cruel Shadow.
I see the Past, Present and Future existing all at once
Before me. O Divine Spirit, sustain me on thy wings,
That I may awake Albion from his long and cold repose;
For Bacon and Newton, sheath'd in dismal steel, their terrors hang
Like iron scourges over Albion: reasonings like vast serpents
Infold around my limbs, bruising my minute articulations.
I turn my eyes to the schools and universities of Europe
And there behold the Loom of Locke, whose Woof rages dire,
Wash'd by the Water-wheels of Newton: black the cloth
In heavy wreaths folds over every nation: cruel works
Of many Wheels I view, wheel without wheel, with cogs tyrannic
Moving by compulsion each other, not as those in Eden, which,
Wheel within wheel, in freedom revolve in harmony and peace.
Scheme | XXAXXBXA XXXXBXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111001000101 011001001001101 110110010010111 01110110011111 111011001110101 110010101011101 110101010011110 10111101101 111110100100110 0101011111101 110101110101 010111010010101 1101111011111 1010101101110101 101101001010001 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 918 |
Words | 154 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 7 |
Lines Amount | 15 |
Letters per line (avg) | 46 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 348 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 76 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 18, 2023
- 46 sec read
- 175 Views
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"I see the Four-fold Man" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39110/i-see-the-four-fold-man>.
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