You Don't Believe
You Don't Believe - meaning Summary
Faith Versus Empirical Reason
Blake addresses an unbelieving listener and contrasts cold, abstract Reason (embodied by Newton) with living faith and experiential belief. He mocks a purely skeptical insistence on doubt and experiment as missing the point that life and religion require active trust and trial. The poem playfully reverses expected authorities, suggesting that belief and engagement bring understanding that detached reason alone cannot provide.
Read Complete AnalysesYou 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!'
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