The Garden of Love - William Blake
/The Garden of Love - William Blake/
A Poetic Lament on Forbidden Joy
Original (Line 1): I went to the Garden of Love,
English (Line 1): I went to the Garden of Love,
Original (Line 2): And saw what I never had seen;
English (Line 2): And saw what I never had seen;
Original (Line 3): A Chapel was built in the midst,
English (Line 3): A Chapel was built in the midst,
Original (Line 4): Where I used to play on the green.
English (Line 4): Where I used to play on the green.
Original (Line 5): And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
English (Line 5): And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
Original (Line 6): And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;
English (Line 6): And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;
Original (Line 7): So I turn’d to the Garden of Love,
English (Line 7): So I turn’d to the Garden of Love,
Original (Line 8): That so many sweet flowers bore.
English (Line 8): That so many sweet flowers bore.
Original (Line 9): And I saw it was filled with graves,
English (Line 9): And I saw it was filled with graves,
Original (Line 10): And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
English (Line 10): And tomb-stones where flowers should be;
Original (Line 11): And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
English (Line 11): And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
Original (Line 12): And binding with briars my joys & desires.
English (Line 12): And binding with briars my joys & desires.
Published in Songs of Experience (1794). This poem is in the public domain.
In “The Garden of Love,” William Blake highlights how institutional religion—or rigid authority—can overshadow personal joy and freedom. At first, the speaker reminisces about a place of childhood play, only to discover that a Chapel now stands where he once wandered freely. The Chapel’s locked doors, inscribed with forbidding rules, contrast sharply with the memory of open grass and flowers.
Blake’s language underscores a transformation from vitality to morbidity: sweet blossoms and green fields become tombstones and graves, while robed Priests patrol with solemn gravity. By juxtaposing these two scenes, Blake suggests that dogmatic control (or moral censorship) stifles human desires and innate innocence. The poem’s final image—“binding with briars my joys & desires”—illustrates how the speaker’s natural impulses have been repressed by external strictures.
Through this shift from vibrancy to constriction, Blake voices a broader concern about religious or cultural systems that equate living essence with sin or guilt. In the poet’s view, genuine spiritual experience should nurture rather than curtail one’s imaginative life. As part of *Songs of Experience,* “The Garden of Love” warns that rigid doctrine can transform a once-blossoming psyche into a place of constraint and gloom.
Key points
1. Childhood play is replaced by a rigid, institutional presence.
2. Blake contrasts open freedom with claustrophobic rules.
3. The poem links spiritual dogma to emotional suppression.
4. Binding “joys & desires” symbolizes how external authority can distort inner life.