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Summary English Home Language - the garden of love
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Sufficient summaries on the Garden of Love, Grade 12 exam.
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I’d like to start my analysis of William Blake’s “The Garden of Love” with those lines byWilliam Blake. He refers to the way he’s reading the Bible compared to the way the church is
interpreting it. I think that this quotation reflects the contradictions and ambiguous relations
between William Blake and the Church of England. Or rather the way the Church of England
was interpreting the Bible and how they wanted the Bible to be read and comprehended by
common people. This is connected to the poem, which is a criticizing the Church of England.
“The Garden of Love” was published in 1794 as part of the “Songs of Experience”.
The special idea of the poem is a lyrical I that is walking around a special garden, which is
the “Garden of Love”. The lyrical I discovers that the garden has changed. There used to be
flowers in the garden. But they are gone and instead the lyrical I finds itself confronted with a
chapel that was built in the garden. Furthermore, there are graves, tomb-stones and priests
in the “Garden of Love”.
The poem creates a feeling of anger and dismay about the changes in the garden. The
lyrical I is dismayed about the changes and because its wishes and desires will remain
unfulfilled. What’s next is that the beauty of the “Garden of Love” faded away through the
change. It is accusing the priests and the chapel of being responsible for his unfulfilled
wishes because they are “binding with briars” his “joys & desires”.
There is a structure in the poem regarding the thoughts and feelings of the lyrical I. In the
first stanza, the lyrical I describes its wandering through the garden and the changes that it
discovers, meaning a chapel where it used to play. This stanza is quiet and gives no hint on
negative feelings or thoughts due to the change.
In the second stanza, it describes the situation in the garden. Its said that the gates of the
chapel are shut. There is an inscription above the gates with a general prohibition
addressing all mankind. The lyrical I is turning its attention towards the beautiful garden.
In the third stanza, the lyrical I is describing the garden. Its naming the changes in the
garden, the graves, tomb-stones and priests. The lyrical I is disappointed by the changes.
The lines are getting more and more emotional, energetic and aggressive throughout the
poem. The first stanza is describing a peaceful and idyllic scene. There is no tendency
towards aggressiveness and tension yet. But at the beginning of the second stanza there is
a turn. The poem is getting more and more negative. There is a contradiction between the
peaceful garden scene and the chapel with its closed gates and the inscription. There is a
certain tension rising in those lines. The last two lines of the second stanza are again
emphasizing the idyllic character of the garden. But in the last stanza the tension is at its
highest level. It seems to be harsh and energetic. The words used are containing harder
sounds, like in “grave”, “priests”, “black gowns”, “briars” etc. Those voiced and voiceless
stops are making the words sound not soft, but rather spitted out with energy. Those lines
are full of energy and disapproval. There is a connection between the formal structure and
the emotions expressed by certain lines. All lines that are transporting a negative feeling of
disapproval or dismay are beginning with the word “And”. In the first line there is already the
first glance of dismay when it says “And I saw what I never had seen”. In this context, it
sounds rather insignificant, but in relation with the following lines it is clear that here we can
, find a first contradiction to the idyllic garden scene. It’s slowly getting more and more obvious
that something has changed in the garden.
The lyrical I does clearly detest the changes in the Garden of Love. It is referring to the
church and expressing its dislike. Those lines represent a clear critique addressed to the
church and their practices regarding religious beliefs. What’s even more, is that the lyrical I
accuses the church of “binding with briars my joys & desires”, meaning not allowing the
lyrical I to be happy but rather putting pressure on it. Compared to the reality in 18th century
England, the doctrines and practices of the Church of England, this might express how those
felt who did not follow the Church of England and did not agree with their way of interpreting
the Bible. It is a provocation and thus still reflecting a part of reality in the 18th century.
The poem consists of three stanzas with each 4 lines, meaning three quatrains. There is no
consistent end rhyme scheme. Only two end rhymes are used. In the first and second
stanza, lines two and four rhyme (seen – green / door – bore). But Blake in making use of a
couple of internal rhymes. In the second stanza, lines one and two, an internal rhyme occurs
in “shut” and “not”. In the last stanza its “gowns” and “rounds”, as well as “briars” and
“desires”. The meter of the poem is not consistent. The first stanza starts with a regular,
harmonious amphibrach. In the second stanza, there is a change in the meter. Blake is here
making use of an anapaest, but it still sounds harmonious. Whereas, the last stanza is
compared to the previous stanzas a bit disharmonious regarding the meter and the length of
the lines. In the first line it is still the anapaest of the previous stanza and then there is a turn.
The meter is changed to an amphibrach again. In the first stanza we find a trimeter, which
can be found in the second stanza too and at the beginning of the third stanza as well. But in
the last two lines of the third stanza Blake is making use of a tetrameter, meaning the lines
are longer than the previous ones. The meter is not regular, which means Blake is not using
one meter consistently throughout the poem.
The Analysis of William Blake's 'The Garden of Love'
A simple view on the poem's imagery combined with Blake's view's on the world.
A man comes to a garden and sees it has been changed from what he saw it to be in his
youth. Where once was the green grass and the nature with its beauty has dominated its
environment, now stands a Chapel. He understands that the careless life he had when he
was a child, now wasn’t full of happiness anymore. The church was now in the centre of it: ‘A
Chapel was built in the midst’? and it was now in control of his life. It was the beginning and
the end of everything that surrounded it.
He looks at the chapel and sees that it’s gates are closed and there is ‘Thou shalt not’
written on its door. The church doesn’t welcome anyone who doesn’t want to live by its rules.
It doesn’t welcome those whose hearts are still full of joy of life. The church demands
obeying of the rules it has made for us, and condemns everyone who wants live by their own
terms. The Chapel is that church which when we grow older we notice to have more power
on us than God itself.
So the man looks away from the Chapel and back into the garden of love. He still tries to
seek for something that could be left from his youth but instead he ‘saw it was filled with
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