[ A Critical Analysis of William Blake’s Poem The Garden of Love]
THE GARDEN OF LOVE
Blake's famous poem "The Garden of Love" first published in 1789 and was included in his
famous collection of poems Songs of Experience. In this poem the unnamed speaker visited a
place, known as the Garden of Love where he used to play in his childhood. Blake here
presented the transformation from childhood to adulthood. He also presented the hypocrisy of
religion that repressed human desire.
The poem begins with the speaker revisited the Garden of Love where he used to play in his
childhood . He found there that in the green open place, a chapel had been erected.
Institutionalized religion destroyed the Garden of Love Blake pointed out that in the world of
experience the harmony between men and nature no longer existed. Whereas earlier the
Garden of Love seemed to be in a state of idyllic beauty, the present scenario is the place of
utter sadness and gloom.
We get a further description of the place in the second stanza, where the chapel was closed
and there was a commandment written on the door-
“Thou shalt not writ over the door." The original line is " Thou shalt love thy Lord, thy God"
which we find in the Book of Deuteronomy but Blake here slightly altered the sentence to
highlight the hypocrisy of church. Then the speaker turned his attention to the place of the
garden where it used to bloom a number of flowers but found them missing. The garden has
become a graveyard and flowers have been replaced by tombstones.
Blake presented a remarkable contrast in the third stanza through the image of "black gown" of
the priest that symbolizes authority and repression, which stands in sharp contrast with the
vibrant imagery of the past garden. These priests "binding with briars" the joys and desires of
human beings. They turned the garden of love into a place of constraint and suffering. The
suppression of the natural desire by the church suggests that the natural growth and
expression is stifled by religious dogma .The last line of the poem - " And binding with briars my
joys and desires " presented the conflict between imagination and reason, ‘Urizen' and ‘loss’.
And it also stands in sharp contrast between the past happiness and present restriction.
Thus Blake's poem "The Garden of Love" has transformed into the ‘garden of pain’.It is a
journey from innocence to experience and as Debjani Sengupta and Shernaz Cama pointed
out ” for growth, both joys and sorrow are essential in Blake's philosophy. For Blake, the
journey from innocence to experience is necessary for the individual and essential for spiritual
or mystical advancement to hire innocence. So the seemingly childish songs have a deeper
purpose.”
THE GARDEN OF LOVE
Blake's famous poem "The Garden of Love" first published in 1789 and was included in his
famous collection of poems Songs of Experience. In this poem the unnamed speaker visited a
place, known as the Garden of Love where he used to play in his childhood. Blake here
presented the transformation from childhood to adulthood. He also presented the hypocrisy of
religion that repressed human desire.
The poem begins with the speaker revisited the Garden of Love where he used to play in his
childhood . He found there that in the green open place, a chapel had been erected.
Institutionalized religion destroyed the Garden of Love Blake pointed out that in the world of
experience the harmony between men and nature no longer existed. Whereas earlier the
Garden of Love seemed to be in a state of idyllic beauty, the present scenario is the place of
utter sadness and gloom.
We get a further description of the place in the second stanza, where the chapel was closed
and there was a commandment written on the door-
“Thou shalt not writ over the door." The original line is " Thou shalt love thy Lord, thy God"
which we find in the Book of Deuteronomy but Blake here slightly altered the sentence to
highlight the hypocrisy of church. Then the speaker turned his attention to the place of the
garden where it used to bloom a number of flowers but found them missing. The garden has
become a graveyard and flowers have been replaced by tombstones.
Blake presented a remarkable contrast in the third stanza through the image of "black gown" of
the priest that symbolizes authority and repression, which stands in sharp contrast with the
vibrant imagery of the past garden. These priests "binding with briars" the joys and desires of
human beings. They turned the garden of love into a place of constraint and suffering. The
suppression of the natural desire by the church suggests that the natural growth and
expression is stifled by religious dogma .The last line of the poem - " And binding with briars my
joys and desires " presented the conflict between imagination and reason, ‘Urizen' and ‘loss’.
And it also stands in sharp contrast between the past happiness and present restriction.
Thus Blake's poem "The Garden of Love" has transformed into the ‘garden of pain’.It is a
journey from innocence to experience and as Debjani Sengupta and Shernaz Cama pointed
out ” for growth, both joys and sorrow are essential in Blake's philosophy. For Blake, the
journey from innocence to experience is necessary for the individual and essential for spiritual
or mystical advancement to hire innocence. So the seemingly childish songs have a deeper
purpose.”
