The garden of love

• Blake

  English poet during the Romantic Era movement/ born dissenters poets

  Blake was devoutly religious, publicly expressing criticism of the Church of England to his peers which is exemplified in 'The Garden of Love'

  Found his inspiration in Bible and other religious texts

  The poem is constantly binarising certain concepts to highlight transformation

  e.g. black and white, joy and misery , death and life, freedom and restriction
• A04:

  ABCB rhyme scheme, three stanzas 12 lines total, anapestic trimester + tetrameter, internal rhyme

  First person retrospective narrative (nostalgic tone throughout)
• Explanation:

  A poem about religion + love, generally a criticism of organised religion
• Quote 1:

  'A chapel was built in the midst...where I used to play on the green
• A02:


  Passive voice
• Quote 2:

  'And "thou shall not" writ all over the door
• A02:

  Restrictive language and imagery

  Reinforces the idea of organised religion's constriction

  Biblical Lexus suggestive that the Church forbids many things arbitrarily
• Quote 3:

  'And binding with briars my joys and desires
• A02:

  Internal rhyme 'briars' 'desires'

  Hedonism and libertinism are restricted by the Church

  Negative connotations of religion
• Pepper:

  'I saw it fill with graves
• A02:

  Paradoxical imagery

  Negative connotations 'Garden of love' is replaced with macabre mortality imagery

  Perhaps implying that the church kills freedom and self-gratification
• A05:

  McBratney: 'the garden becomes a place where desires are forbidden and joys are constrained
• A03:

  Such a depiction of the garden may reflect Blake's hatred of organised religion. This is especially evident in the richly symbolic landscape of the garden, which he uses to amplify the difference between the (Christianity-free) past and the chapel-dominated present. Blake was a deeply spiritual artist and poet, but disliked the institutions associated with religion. The garden of love, formerly associated with play and carefree childhood, is now the site of a chapel; a physical embodiment of the Church. It is often argues that religions codify faith. and that through the process of codification, religion becomes less liberating - Blake is critical of this.
• A03:

  Blake himself was devoutly religious, though he held reservations on organized religion, publicly expressing criticism of the Church of England to many of his peers, and exemplified in 'The Garden of Love'. Instead he found his inspiration in the Bible and other religious texts. In 1789, Blake published his Songs of Innocence and in 1794, Songs of Experience, of which 'The Garden of Love' is part. Although he didn't receive much recognition during his lifetime, Blake remains hugely influential in English poetry as well as in visual arts, particularly of the Romantic Movement.