The Garden of Love Summary & Analysis by William Blake
- Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
- Poetic Devices
- Vocabulary & References
- Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
- Line-by-Line Explanations
"The Garden of Love" is a poem by English Romantic visionary William Blake. Blake was devoutly religious, but he had some major disagreements with the organized religion of his day. The poem expresses this, arguing that religion should be about love, freedom, and joy—not rules and restrictions. The poem is part of his famous collection Songs of Innocence and Experience , which was first published in 1789.
- Read the full text of “The Garden of Love”
The Full Text of “The Garden of Love”
1 I went to the Garden of Love,
2 And saw what I never had seen:
3 A Chapel was built in the midst,
4 Where I used to play on the green.
5 And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
6 And Thou shalt not. writ over the door;
7 So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
8 That so many sweet flowers bore.
9 And I saw it was filled with graves,
10 And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
11 And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
12 And binding with briars, my joys & desires.
“The Garden of Love” Summary
“the garden of love” themes.
Love vs. Organized Religion
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
Childhood vs. Adulthood
Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “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:
Lines 11-12
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires.
“The Garden of Love” Symbols
- See where this symbol appears in the poem.
Graves and Tombstones
“the garden of love” poetic devices & figurative language.
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
Alliteration
Polysyndeton, end-stopped line, “the garden of love” vocabulary.
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Thou shalt not
- See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.
Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Garden of Love”
Rhyme scheme, “the garden of love” speaker, “the garden of love” setting, literary and historical context of “the garden of love”, more “the garden of love” resources, external resources.
Illustration and Other Poems — A resource from the Tate organization, which holds a large collection of Blake originals. Here the poem can be seen in its original illustrated form.
Blake's Radicalism — An excerpt from a documentary in which writer Iain Sinclair discusses Blake's radicalism.
Blake's Visions — An excerpt from a documentary in which writer Iain Sinclair discusses Blake's religious visions.
Full Text of Songs of Innocence and Experience — Various formats for the full text in which "The Garden of Love" is collected.
A Reading by Allen Ginsberg — Beat poet Allen Ginsberg reads the poem.
LitCharts on Other Poems by William Blake
Ah! Sun-flower
A Poison Tree
Earth's Answer
Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)
Holy Thursday (Songs of Innocence)
Infant Sorrow
Introduction (Songs of Innocence)
Nurse's Song (Songs of Experience)
Nurse's Song (Songs of Innocence)
The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)
The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Innocence)
The Clod and the Pebble
The Divine Image
The Ecchoing Green
The Human Abstract
The Little Black Boy
The Little Vagabond
The School Boy
The Sick Rose
To the Evening Star
Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions
The Garden of Love
By William Blake
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.
Summary of The Garden of Love
- Popularity of “The Garden of Love”: “The Garden of Love” by William Blake, one of the most popular English poets and authors, is a thoughtful poem . It was published in 1974 in his work, Song of Experience. The poem presents the speaker ’s amazement over the change he witnesses in the Garden of love. It also sheds light on the constantly changing cycle of the world.The poem attains widespread popularity on account of its representation of a place that has lost its prime.
- “The Garden of Love”, As a Representative of Amazement: Written from a young man’s perspective , the poem highlights how everything changes over time. It begins with a happy note when the speaker enters a place he refers to as the Garden of Love. Perhaps he has spent quality time at that place and might have decided to visit the place keeping in mind the same joyous memories. However, to his surprise, the garden of love has lost its original appearance as the beautiful place has undergone a significant transformation. The chapel, where he used to play, is now closed and no one is allowed to write over the door. Therefore, he returns to the garden of love. He wonders how a place that once filled with sweet flowers is now occupied with graves, tombstones, and priests who are preparing a funeral with desires and joy.
- Major Themes in “The Garden of Love”: The changing nature of time, past versus present, and amazement are three major themes of the poem. The speaker introduces a place once the epitome of happiness and joy. He enters the place having the same exuberant memories. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm fades away when he sees that the site is no longer the same. From the chapel to flowery gardens, everything is now set to meet the current standards of the world. The place has lost its originality and actual colors. In fact, the people have altered this sacred and holy place to satisfy their needs and desires.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in “The Garden of Love”
literary devices create a distinct mood , tone , and meanings in the poem. The analysis of the devices used in the poem is as follows.
- Assonance : Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such as the sound of /a/ and /o/ in “And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds” and again the sound of /o/ in “And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door.”
- Allegory : It is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas and principles are described in terms of characters , figures, and events. This is an allegoric poem that speaks about the altering nature of time.
- Anaphora : It refers to the repetition of a word or expression in the first part of some verses . Blake has repeated the word “and” in the last stanza of the poem to emphasize the point such as;
“ And I saw it was filled with graves, And tomb-stones where flowers should be: And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds.”
- Allusion : Allusion is a belief and an indirect reference of a person, place, thing or idea of a historical, cultural, political or literary significance. William Blake alludes to the Christian religion in the opening line of the poem such as “I went to the Garden of Love.”
- Alliteration : Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as the sound of /w/ in “were walking.”
- Consonance : Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as the sound of /r/ in “And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds” and the sound of /t/ in “And the gates of this Chapel were shut.”
- Imagery : Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. William Blake has used imagery in this poem such as “And I saw it was filled with graves”, “And tomb-stones where flowers should be,” and “A Chapel was built in the midst.”
- Metaphor : It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects that are different in nature. The poet has used this device in the opening lines of the poem, where it plays metaphorically represents youth such as “Where I used to play on the green.”
- Metonymy : Metonymy is a figure of speech in which one object or idea takes the place of another with which it has a close association. The poet has used this device in the last line of the first stanza such as; “Where I used to play on the green.”
- Symbolism : Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from literal meanings. The poem uses symbols such as youth, past glories and the power of time.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “The Garden of Love”
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
- Diction and Tone: The poem shows descriptive diction but the tone is somewhat sad and nostalgic.
- End Rhyme : End rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. William Blake has used rhyming words in the poem such as; “seen/green” and “door/bore.”
- Rhyme Scheme : The poem follows ABAB rhyme scheme and this pattern throughout the poem.
- Quatrain : A quatrain is a four lined stanza borrowed from Persian poetry. Here each stanza is quatrain.
- Stanza : A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are three stanzas in this poem with each having a same number of lines.
Quotes to be Used
These lines from the poem, “The Garden of Love” are useful to use while reminiscing the good memories.
“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.”
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William Blake
The garden of love.
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O FOR a voice like thunder, and… To drown the throat of war! When… Are shaken, and the soul is driven… Who can stand? When the souls of… Fight in the troubled air that rag…
“Love seeketh not itself to please… Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell's des… So sung a little Clod of Clay
Hear the voice of the Bard! Who Present, Past, and Future, s… Whose ears have heard The Holy Word That walk’d among the ancient tree…
O Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm That flies in the night, In the howling storm, Has found out thy bed
I LOVE the jocund dance, The softly breathing song, Where innocent eyes do glance, And where lisps the maiden’s tongu… I love the laughing vale,
HAIL 1 Matrimony, made of Love! To thy wide gates how great a drov… On purpose to be yok’d do come; Widows and Maids and Youths also, That lightly trip on beauty’s toe,
Prepare, prepare the iron helm of… Bring forth the lots, cast in the… Th’ Angel of Fate turns them with… And casts them out upon the darken… Prepare, prepare!
My mother bore me in the southern… And I am black, but O! my soul is… White as an angel is the English… But I am black, as if bereav’d of… My mother taught me underneath a t…
Memory, hither come, And tune your merry notes; And, while upon the wind Your music floats, I’ll pore upon the stream
There is a smile of love, And there is a smile of deceit, And there is a smile of smiles In which these two smiles meet; And there is a frown of hate,
Cruelty has a human heart And jealousy a human face, Terror the human form divine, And secrecy the human dress. The human dress is forged iron,
The Maiden caught me in the wild, Where I was dancing merrily; She put me into her Cabinet, And lock’d me up with a golden key… This Cabinet is form’d of gold
THERE’S Doctor Clash, And Signor Falalasole, O they sweep in the cash Into their purse hole! Fa me la sol, La me fa sol!
O HOLY virgin! clad in purest wh… Unlock heav’n’s golden gates, and… Awake the dawn that sleeps in heav… Rise from the chambers of the east… The honey’d dew that cometh on wak…
My silks and fine array, My smiles and languish’d air, By love are driv’n away; And mournful lean Despair Brings me yew to deck my grave:
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The Poems of William Blake
Blake's 'the garden of love' - the aesthetic and the intellectual are inseparable andre de moeller-samarin 12th grade.
William Blake, a 19th century romantic poet, wrote poetic arguments in Songs of Innocence and Experience filled with rich imagery and symbolism to convey his, at the time, idiosyncratic views surrounding the church and its negative impact on mankind. Blake was against the suppression of human nature by theological dogma and believed that all restraint in obedience to a moral code was against the spirit of life - the only restriction over man was in his own mind: the ‘mind forg’d manacles’. Using his poetry as a medium to convey his beliefs, Blake was against every conception of God as an omnipotent being and championed the idea of sex being true gratification to man. He shaped his works to invite the reader into seeing the world as he did by using their imagination aided by hand-engraved illuminated paintings. ‘The Garden of Love’ from Songs of Experience, uses aesthetic qualities such as emotive and evocative diction, meter, tone and Judea-Christian discourse to convey Blake’s ideological beliefs - therefore making the ‘aesthetic and the intellectual inseparable’. The poem criticises the church’s repressive rules surrounding sex and argues against the sanctimonious apologies for injustice the church encourages in an attempt to...
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The Garden of Love
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Table of Contents
Introduction
In the poem The Garden of Love , William Blake explains how the Church has taken away the happiness of the people by imposing a lot of restrictions on their freedom and the things which used to comfort them.
Blake uses the first-person perspective to share his experience as a child when he used to play in the garden of love. But after growing up, when he returned back, he found that the garden of love was no more. Instead, there was a Church which forbade people from entering there. Moreover, there were graves everywhere.
The poem has been divided into three stanzas having four lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABCB DEFE GHIJ.
The Garden of Love Poem Summary
The poet says that after getting old, he goes back to th e garden of love where he used to play. There he sees something which he never saw before. It means that the poet is shocked to see something new in the garden of love.
He sees that a Chapel (worship house of Christians) is built in the middle of the green garden where he used to play when he was young. The first stanza depicts the poet’s dissatisfaction with the religion and the places of worship.
The poet says that the gates of that Chapel were shut and it was written over the doors that no one should enter or play or do anything else there. These two lines of the stanza 2 quite important because they reveal the real face of the popular religion.
Blake was a Romantic Poet who firmly believed in God. However, that didn’t make him to blindly follow religion and religious practices. Instead, he was highly critical of the clergy who used to befool people in the name of religion and extract money from them. Not only this, but they also put restrictions on them thus discouraging them from free and critical thinking.
In these lines, the poet says that the Chruch was built right in the middle of the garden of love. If we go deeper into the words, we find that the poet is talking about the doctrines which were put forward by the clergy. They forbade the people from enjoying their lives and made them bow before them.
In the third line, the poet says that he then turned to the Garden of Love which bore a number of sweet flowers . The stanza ends here.
This stanza continues from the second one. The poet sees that the garden of love is filled with graves and tombstones where once the flowers used to bloom. Moreover, priests were walking around in black gowns (long elegant dress) in that garden who according to the poet had bound or trapped his joys and desires .
In this stanza, the poet uses some dark images to depict the negativity of religion. Graves, tombstones and black gowns are all dark images which depict sorrow, grief, death and despair. All these images show how religion has taken away the happiness of humans. It is not preaching about God but its own selfish desires on the cost of people’s happiness.
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The Garden of Love
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Poem Analysis
Symbols & Motifs
Literary Devices
Further Reading & Resources
Discussion Questions
Childhood and Adulthood
“The Garden of Love” comes from the Experience section of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience . The poems in Experience depict the restrictions the adult world imposes on children, whose innate urges are toward freedom, wonder, happiness, and love. Blake’s belief was that humans are born naturally loving God and provided with all that they need to be happy. His poetry shows how the unnatural restraints and dictums of the adult world quash those joys.
“The Garden of Love” is divided into two distinct periods of life, corresponding to childhood and adulthood. The role of the garden for the child is depicted in Lines 4, 8, and 10. These lines look back at how the garden was for the speaker as a child and the use of the word “play” (Line 4) confirms this. The child was free and happy in the garden. The “sweet flowers” (Line 8) of the garden in childhood reinforce the image of a place of beauty, and of nature in its free and abundant state.
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Home / Essay Samples / Literature / William Blake / Literary Analysis Of The Garden Of Love By William Blake
Literary Analysis Of The Garden Of Love By William Blake
- Category: Literature
- Topic: Poetry , William Blake
Pages: 2 (890 words)
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Works Cited
- Blake, William. “The Garden of Love.” Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology, edited by Helen Vendler, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2018, pp. 324.
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