Garden Of Love Flashcards
Who wrote this poem
William Blake
What is the structure of the poem
• Three stanzas, 12 lines total
• ABCB rhyme scheme
• Anapestic trimeter & tetrameter
• Internal rhyme
Give some context of the writer
• English romantic poet
• His parents were Dissenters, Protestant Christian’s
• illustrator, painter and an engraver
• Publicly expressed criticism for organised religion and Church of England
• Influential
• Romantic Movement
Give context of the poem
• Published in 1789
• Unnamed speaker
• Religious Imagery
• Hatred of organised religion
• First-person narrative voice
• Bitter-sweet tone in referencing the garden
• richly symbolic landscape
• A symbol of wider humanity
• Childhood
What themes are explored in this poem
• Love
• Religion
• Unattainable love/barriers to love
What quotations in this poem parallel quotations in the great Gatsby
• “It was filled with graces and tomb-stones where flowers should be”
• “Ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air”- chapter 2
• “Where I used to play on the green”
• “A fresh green breast of the new world” chapter 9
How is the theme of love explored in the poem, give quotations and meanings
• Religion against love, unnecessary restrictions; “Thou shalt not”. Prohibitions from embracing joy, desire and community.
• Barreness of the land when love is lacking. “tomb-stones”, “graves”
• “flowers” represent love, beauty, nature and abundance which is a natural contrast from the chapel which is man-made. Reclamation of the Garden of love is necessary to restore the love that was associated with it before.
How is the theme of religion explored in this poem, give quotations and meanings
• Religious Imagery
• Garden of Eden- Paradise, biblical allusion to a state of innocence and it is only after religion is imposed on it that it becomes degraded which led to organised religion to prevent sin.
• Controversial perspective because it presents religion as restrictive as opposed to enlightening
• The priests reinforce the joyless, serious world of adulthood. Black clothes suggest the death of childhood. Organised religion locks people out of love.
• Call of freedom from religious structures and a return to a childlike state of carefree expression
How is the structure of the poem symbolic ?
• Simple form expresses clear argument
• First stanza- return to the past
• Second stanza- transformation
• Third stanza- ominous in tone
• Quadratic form summons ballad metre used in popular oral poetry
What lines uses internal rhyme
Final two lines of the final stanza
What does the final rhymes in the poem convey?
A sense of anger
What is the significance of the use of metre
The refusal by of the poem to settle into a regular Anapestic meter perhaps reflects that it is a poem about conflict- a conflict between love and organized religion
What is the purpose of end-stopped lines in this poem
• Subtle sense of resignation and acceptance
• Simplicity
What figure of speech is used in the following words
• “Garden of love”
• “flowers”
• “Chapel”
• Repetition
• Flowers are a symbol of joy and beauty, indicates abundance
• chapel symbolises strangling of the spirit, lifelessness
What figure of speech is used in the following words and what is its purpose
• “so”, “bore”, line 8 similar vowels
• “binding”, “briars” and “desires”, line 12
• Assonance
• Reluctance to accept changes
What figure of speech is used in the following words and state it’s significance.
“Gates”, “Shut”, “Shalt not” and “writ”
• Consonance of the letter ‘t’
• binding and negativity
• Locks people out of a relationship with God as opposed to welcoming them in
What are the similarities and differences between this poem and At an inn
Similarities
• Both poems use allusions to the past and refer to a place where love was harboured more strongly, they both do this in the first person to highlight the transformation of their love
• “I used to play on the green”/ “veiled smiles bespoke their thought/of what we were”
• “I saw it was filled with graves”/“Love lingered numb”
What are the similarities and differences between the garden of love and remember
Similarities
• A sense of loss, sentimental, nostalgic tone and language
• Religious Imagery affirm both of the author’s personal convictions
Differences
• Childhood memory / love for a childhood place over address to a lover
• TGL has a direct, simple message about organised religion being constructive and limiting love. The speaker in ‘Remember’ wants her lover to remember her but mid-way through she acknowledges that they may not.
