Lyric Poem · Love
Thel's Motto
Does the Eagle know what is in the pit?
Or wilt thou go ask the Mole:
Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod?
Or Love in a golden bowl?
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Thel's Motto” by William Blake — quilloak.com/poems/thels-motto
Quick facts
- Poem
- Thel's Motto
- Poet
- William Blake
- Length
- 4 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Love, Short
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 4 lines · one 4-line stanza
- End rhyme
- ABCB — ballad rhyme — only lines 2 and 4 chime.
- Line length
- Lines run 7-10 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- William Blake1757–1827
- Source record
- PoetryDBThel's Motto by william-blake, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 2e313aa51914e3db…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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