dots-menu
×

Home  »  The Poetical Works by William Blake  »  You don’t believe

William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908.

Poems from the Rossetti MS.: Later Poems

You don’t believe

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!’