Garden of Love, The Analysis

I laid me down upon a bank,
Where Love lay sleeping;
I heard among the rushes dank
Weeping, weeping.

Then I went to the heath and the wild,
To the thistles and thorns of the waste;
And they told me how they were beguiled,
Driven out, and compelled to the chaste.

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 turned to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be;
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires.

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I need to disagree with most commentators here. Certainly, this poem is about how the church opposes the "natural" state of "love" (at least, sexual love); yet I believe that Blake, like most romantic poets, was totally wrong.
First, they put up the bogeyman called "the church" and attack it, yet the church is not original here. Rather, it's the Bible that clearly supports some forms of sexual love and says "thou shalt not" about others.
But the more basic problem is that they assume, without argument, that the current natural state of sexual love is good and that the church (following the Bible) is wrong in stating "thou shalt not." This is far from obvious to me. There's no rational way of proving it. And, regarding our actual experience with life, a simple look at what is now the "natural" state of sexual love indicates this is not so: all the murders and infidelities and treacheries that have been committed in the name of "natural" sexual love, the hundreds of extant venereal diseases.
Blake is right on one point: in the "garden" (assuming he was referring to Eden), natural love was good; but we are clearly not in that garden any more. It's not "the church" that bars us from re-entering: it's your sin and mine.
In summary, by all means read and analyze the poetry of Blake: but if you want to get to the truth of the matter, I urge you to throw off the easy emotional answers chosen by Blake and look for deeper rational answers. Perhaps you'll find the church (and not Blake's caricatures of it) was really right in the first place.

| Posted on 2009-10-30 | by a guest

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This poem is wonderful. Blake was heavily influenced by religous thinkers such as Milton. He was a painter or artist for much of his life, and religion was often the subject of his art. However, he was a "nonconformist radical" (MSN Encarta William Blake). Thus, he was open to critiquing the Church.
think that he makes a beautiful point that many things which were created by God are to be enjoyed, but fear of potential sin causes walls to be put up to block out the beautiful.
Love is "weeping" because it is being called bad. I see the wild being symbolic of containing, (if it be possible to contain), love. Yet now a Chapel has been built, a human structure set in place where something perfect once was. Blake turns away because it puts him off of religion, but finds only a garden of dead flowers. The flowers must be the loves that never were.

| Posted on 2009-10-15 | by a guest

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This is to correct the ignorance of the last post. The time period Blake published this poem was 1794, as mentioned. The American Revolution (declaring independence from the British) began in 1775 and Britain declared war on France during the French Revolution after they executed Louis the XVI in 1793. So this poem WAS written/published in between two wars. Know what you are talking about before you act condescending. There was more than one war.

| Posted on 2009-10-01 | by a guest

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I feel it is my duty, to post that whoever thought this Blake wrote in the era before and after the great war, is perhaps the most ridiculous suggestion I have read in years. Blake would be rolling over in his grave.
Songs of Innocence and Experience was published in 1794, The Great War was 1914-1918.
Good god....

| Posted on 2009-05-09 | by a guest

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I believe that blake has a dislike for rediculus oppression. Being that this poem was written in the early 1800's, churches were over-emphasizing rules.
With the freedom of early "innocent" childhood, the Garden of Love is symbolic of the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden being the utopia God set us to live in is also symbolic of the freedom left for us, so that we may grow in religion. The church's in the 1800's were oppressive and the typical bible thumpers over-emphasized every rule or commandment. This oppression inhibits the "innocence" and turns religion into a job. The symbolism of the graves being the loss or "death" of the real meaning of religion. "Tombstones where flowers should be."
A side and new look at how humans need to take a step back from their "perfect" lives and stop controlling everything. How humans need to look at the original plan and see the contrast portrayed. Very deep religious poem. I just touched on the major parts.

| Posted on 2009-03-11 | by a guest

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From what I knew about Blake's Song of Innocence and Songs of Experience is the era before and after the World War. From my own opinion, I think that what Blake is trying to portray about the "green" he used to play on has now a church I presume was built only to bury the soldiers who had fought and died during the war.

| Posted on 2009-03-09 | by a guest

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Blake is expressing his dislike of the repressive church. the garden of love could also symbolise the garden of eden and how the church is acting as the oppressor to all joyous and sensual experiences, i.e the sweet flowers.

| Posted on 2009-03-02 | by a guest

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I think the main theme Blake is trying to express in the ' garden of love' is that when he was an innocent child everything appeared perfect in the first stanza he used to play on the green and was allowed freedom. As the 'song' progresses we are made aware of the restriction of the church 'and the gates of this chapel were shut'The tone gradually becomes darker as he nears the truth and sees it with 'experienced eyes' He sees it 'filled with graves'The garden of love is a metaphor for change.

| Posted on 2009-02-19 | by a guest

.: :.

I think the main theme Blake is trying to express in the ' garden of love' is that when he was an innocent child everything appeared perfect in the first stanza he used to play on the green and was allowed freedom. As the 'song' progresses we are made aware of the restriction of the church 'and the gates of this chapel were shut'The tone gradually becomes darker as he nears the truth and sees it with 'experienced eyes' He sees it 'filled with graves'The garden of love is a metaphor for change.

| Posted on 2009-02-19 | by a guest

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well i think this poem is really good and i think that it really means that love has limits and sometimes we cant stop them...

| Posted on 2009-02-11 | by a guest

.: The Garden of Love :.

In “The Garden of Love”, William Blake portrays his disgust towards the church of his day and all the restrictions and limits it puts on his “joys and desires” and the way he expresses Love. He displays this foreboding tone with the use of imagery and symbolism.
The poem begins with the narrator lying beside a river and listening to Love weep. This is the first indication the reader receives that Love is under attack. He then walks over to the “heath and wild”, where the “thistles and thorns of the wild” tell him how they are “driven out” and made to be pure and innocent. These thorns and thistles represent Love’s wild passions and desires that are compelled to be subdued.
The next stanza actually states what is restraining Love. It tells of a chapel that has been erected where the narrator once used to play. Already, the reader can see that the church is restricting Blake. Where he once used to frolic, there is a mammoth building hindering him from doing so. The next verse goes into more detail as it describes the doors of the chapel. On them are written, “Thou shalt not”, a blatant allusion to the Ten Commandments of the Bible. The fact that the words chosen to adorn the doors to the church are restrictive in nature, instead of an instructive “Thou shalt”, demonstrates the constrained state that the church puts Blake in. Discouraged by the limiting statement on the doors, the narrator turns to the rest of the Garden in hope of finding “sweet flowers”.
Sadly, all he sees when he turns is a forlorn and gloomy sight, a desolate graveyard, filled with tombstones. In the middle of this graveyard are priests, outreaches of the church, fastening together his “joys and desires” with briars, symbolizing the rules the church weighs upon him, and thorns. These are his final hopes, killed.
Throughout the poem, Blake’s colorful use of imagery and heavy symbolism express his resentment toward the church. He makes obvious how he feels, that it is restrictive in nature and hinders him from expressing his loves, joys, and desires with all the rules and regulations that it places upon him.

| Posted on 2006-01-27 | by Approved Guest