The Garden of Love Flashcards
Summarise
The speaker recounts an experience of returning to a green where he used to play as a boy. It has changed: a chapel has been built; the area is covered in graves, not flowers. Above the door of the chapel is the inscription: ‘Thous shalt not’, and black - gowned priests are on patrol, painfully holding back from his pleasures and desires.
Form and structure
3 quatrains
Rhyme scheme for the first 2 stanza is ABCB
Internal rhyme in stanza 3
- “Gowns” “Rounds”
- “Briars” “Desires”
The first rhyme in the poem makes use of long E sounds. Note that to make this sound you have to smile. The poem starts out almost upbeat as it talks about childhood.
The 2nd rhyme in the poem, is ‘oor’ sound conveys the start of distress.
“Where I used to play on the green”
The church of the time imposed rigid rules in relation to sexuality, and forced its repressive rules of uneducated people. They responded through guilt and fear. Blake believed that the source of all love was God, and emotions should grow naturally. The “green” symbolises natural growth, fertility and innocent expression of desires.
“Gates of this Chapel”
The clergy of the established Church interpreted the Christian message not in terms of love but in terms of harshness and repression. So the gated chapel is locked. What should ave been a place of peace, prayer and a route to God’s love is a barrier.
“‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door”
The 10 commandments comprises negatives and positives.
The church emphasised the negatives; the punitive side of religion; imposed restrictions and instilled a sense of guilt in many uneducated people.
Blake was highly critical of what he saw as a distortion of the christian message of love and use of religion as a form of social control.
“And I saw it was filled with graves// And tombstones”
The grave and tombstones could literally belong to unloved people who have died, failing the thrive because of their stunted emotional lives.
Or the tombstones could represent the range of emotions and physical drives that have been suppressed and destroyed by the church’s teaching.
“Where flowers should be”
“Where flowers should be”
The flower represent the warmth and loving generosity of the human heart. These couldn’t grow because the emotions that nourish then have been killed, lying under tombstones.
The industrial revolution is another layer of meaning to this poem. Blake was critical of the terrible exploitation of workers. Also, for the mass destruction of nature and pollution was the result.
