The

Garden of Love.
I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And ``Thou shalt not'' writ over the door;
So I turn'd to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore;
And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be;
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys & desires.
The Garden of Love is a poem from the book of Songs of Experience written by William
Blake.
I chose this poem because I found it interesting and slightly easier to understand the
messaging it contains. As soon as I read it I started thinking about how much trouble Blake
must have caused himself for writing this poem. Blake was known to be against the doctrines
of the Anglican faith and other of his poems like this one hint at dissatisfaction with the
concept of God and the church. At the time it was written, rebelling against the church was
not tolerated by society, meaning that writing and publishing this poem probably caused him
many different problems.
As I wrote earlier, this poem hints towards dissatisfaction with the Anglican Church. In fact, I
think that that is the strongest message in this poem. The Garden of Love is a poem mostly
written in anger towards the Church.
I think that the Garden of Love is a metaphor for something or someone that has been
destroyed or taken away from Blake, or somebody else because of the Church. The line:
Where I used to play on the green expresses the feeling that whatever it was the Church had
taken away was something that was very close to the narrator. It could have been love, a
place, money or a vision... Something that was important or had special meaning.
The poem focuses on a negative view of the Church. It describes the chapel as a big building
with shut doors, put in a place where there should be nothing but love and joy. The line And
the gates of this Chapel were shut and thou shalt not writ over the door, suggests that the
Church was a closed and intolerant place, lacking the ability to accept any other feeling or
faith. The line Thou shalt not could be Blakes way of expressing the intolerance and the
many forbidding rules of the Anglican faith.
Graves have replaced flowers; death has replaced life. Where there used to be a garden of
love there is now nothing but intolerance, sorrow and death. And tomb-stones where flowers
should be; and priests in black gowns were walking their rounds. The priests were dressed in
black, the colour of sorrow. The line And binding by briars my joys and desires suggests
that life was being held back because of the Church. The Church was overly controlling of
what people did and how they lived.


The painting didnt change my idea or
opinion of the poem. The painting
shows a priest, dressed in black,
burying somebody while two white
angels are praying. The picture
represents sorrow and death.
I read some comments online and I
found one written by somebody from
the USA suggesting that the flowers
could represent society. The flowers
in the poem were replaced by tombstones, the joy and laughter of society
could be replaced by sorrow and
anger.
As most of Blakes work, this poem is
metaphorical. Its not an actual garden
where somebody built a chapel; its
metaphorical for the loss of
happiness.
Blakes use of this poem would have
been to open peoples eyes. To make
society aware of what he thought was
the damage made by the Church. A
very brave thing to do, considering the consequences he must have faced. As I wrote, I think
the strongest message in this poem is dissatisfaction and anger towards the Church.







Lucy Forster 8e