This document is a summary of 'The Garden of Love' by William Blake. The document includes analyses regarding each line, tone and mood, structure, themes, diction, imagery etc. Furthermore, a collection of contextual questions from past papers is included in the summary.
The Garden of Love
“I went to the Garden of Love, A Chapel was built in the midst,
And saw what I never had seen:” Where I used to play on the green.”
The opening two lines set up the This new chapel is an alien structure, an
opposition between then and now. imposter in the Garden of Love. The
Returning to the Garden of Love— capitalization of "Chapel" helps give the
capitalized as a proper noun to show its sense of the chapel occupying physical
significance—the speaker comes to a space, imposing itself on the area
sight that he or she has "never" seen where the speaker used to play.
before. The chapel in the midst of the garden
Of course, the garden is also an allusion implies that the church and religious
to the biblical Garden of Eden. The dogma are preventing humanity’s
poem can be understood as talking return to the Edenic state.
about humankind in its pre- and
postlapsarian state (a fancy way of
saying before and after Adam and Eve
were banished from Eden in the Bible),
and equating the "Fall of Man" not with
sin, but with organized religion itself.
Institutionalized religion thus destroyed
the Garden of Love. In the world of
Experience, the harmony between man
and nature no longer existed. Earlier the
Garden of Love seemed to be in a state
of idyllic beauty, but the present-day
scenario of the place is one of utter
sadness and gloom.
“And the gates of this Chapel were shut, “And I saw it was filled with graves,
And Thou shalt not. writ over the door; And tomb-stones where flowers should
be:”
So I turn’d to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore.”
The gate is closed to the passer-by and The Garden portrays an aura of total
on it is inscribed the warning ‘Thou unease and misery. At present, the
Shalt Not’. The warning is emblematic of garden seems to be filled with graves
the classic dictum of the Ten and tombstones which are images of
Commandments. death, and so horrendous and
The words over the door ‘Thou shalt not’ undesirable.
is a metaphor for the restrictive nature ‘tomb-stones where flowers should be’
of the church with an attitude like a indicates the church’s emphasis on sin
closed door concerning itself only with and death, putting the fear of God so to
that which is forbidden. speak in people in the process
destroying beauty and the pure joy of
‘flowers’ (line 8) symbolizes the
living.
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, speaker’s memories of his youth when
he was unburdened by restrictions or His dreams that once flourished, full of
shame. He finds those memories all imagination now lay under the weight
gone, now replaced by a chapel that of grey tombstones.
represents the restrictive nature of the
church.
“And Priests in black gowns, were “And binding with briars, my joys &
walking their rounds,” desires”
Even the priests wrapped in black ‘binding with briars, my joys & desires’
gowns forebode an ill-omen and an act is an allusion to the crucifixion, the
of mourning and despair. The priests briars representing Christ’s crown of
depict a total official manner devoid of thorns, which was a tool used to torture
any compassion or even forgiveness. him. The author implies that the laws
This seems to be the basic factor that imposed on society by the church are
binds the narrator’s desires and joy. cruel, restrictive and painful. The harsh
‘b’ sound emphasizes the harshness of
It could be that earlier, the Garden
the church and also the author’s
presented the state of innocence where
simmering anger.
an environment of gaiety and mirth
prevailed and everybody could enter the
place without any discrimination
whatsoever. But now it seems that the
Garden has been lent or sold out to a
private individual who exerts the sole
authority and hence, the others are
devoid of any joyous moment. The
present day scene looks quite dismal
where even such a simple resort as the
garden is unable to escape the evils of
industrialization and subsequent
phenomenon of private ownership.
Capitalization
William Blake capitalizes the words Garden and Love, because their
meaning are much deeper than the simple interpretation of the word.
Love with a capital letter is more to be taken like a First Love: the same
love that was given to man from God. Not just feelings from certain
person to another and definitely not a romantic love. Garden is a place in
our hearts where we preserve that primal emotion. However, Blake shows
us that in time, that emotion disappears from our Garden. So Garden
reminds us of the Garden of Eden were everything was pure until the Evil
came and corrupted the Good. That happens to almost every soul, so that
there is no good when a man has lost his purity.
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