Henry's Very First Blog Post: about Blake's "The Garden of Love"

The capitalization of “Garden of Love” throughout the poem establishes the phrase as symbolic, but its more exact significance remains ambiguous. It could be an actual garden, filled with flowers and plants, that is representative of a natural space that is conducive to the feeling of love. Alternatively it could signify a space in which love itself is that which is growing in the garden, one in which love is directly equated with flowers and plants. Additionally it carries the religious connotation of the garden of Eden, a connotation that gains significance as the poem progresses to follow a clearly religious (or anti-religious) theme.

The appearance of the “Chapel” (3) in the garden of love is as something the speaker “has never seen”. This gives the appearance of the chapel a 'surprising' quality. Not only is the “Chapel” something the speaker has not seen specifically within the location of the garden, but it is something that they have “never seen” anywhere. Therefore it is not only the chapel's location that is surprising but the conception of the very notion of the chapel. The capitalization of Chapel also prompts the reader to view it symbolically, as with the capitalization of the Garden of Love. In this way the poem begins its questioning of the necessity of the institution of (Christian) religion.

The Chapel occupies the space where the speaker “used to play on the green” (4). Combined with the earlier description of the chapel as something the “speaker had never seen” (2), what is implied is that the speaker already has been frequenting the Garden of Love before the appearance of the chapel, and shared an intimate relationship with the Garden that pre-dates the appearance of the Chapel. It used to be a place of play, of childlike enjoyment. 'Play' also carries a sexual connotation. The word “green” doubly refers to the color, building on the 'natural' quality of the Garden, and to a 'green', a grassy space of public use land in English society. Therefore the encroachment of the Chapel onto the green is also a political encroachment upon the common law.

The gates of the chapel are shut, possibly suggesting the inaccessibility of the social and economic hierarchies that comprise the Anglican religion. By leaving the command written on the church door as a non-specific, highly surreal “Thou shalt not” (6), the speaker simultaneously captures and critiques the pervading prohibitory tone of Christian doctrine.

All this negativity emanating from the chapel prompts the speaker to “turn to the Garden of Love” (7), presumably that part of the Garden through which the speaker approached the chapel which is still not physically occupied by the chapel. And yet in a nightmare-like temporal disruption, that which is behind the speaker has been rapidly altered without their knowledge, again prompting surprise upon their turning.

The Garden is 'suddenly' “filled with graves” (10), the speaker's space of play has become a space of death. The Priests “walking their rounds” (11) are dressed in “black gowns” (11). The “black” of the gowns connotes death in connection with the graves, in contrast to the earlier “green” (4) which connotes natural grown and raw life. That the priests are “walking their rounds” (11) suggests that they are merely 'going through the motions', ostensibly following predicable patterns of thought that are sanctioned by their religious practice. They are physically “binding with briars” (12) the speaker's ephemeral “joys and desires” (12), seeking to likewise confine them. There is a collapse of the divide between physical realm and the realm of thought, the priests have infiltrated the speaker's brain to attempt to painfully (from the thorny nature of the briars) suppress his initial inclination to play, to freely express his sexuality and on the most basic level to enjoy himself. The “briars” (12) invoke Christ's crown of thorns, encircling his head as the priests seek to confine the mind of the speaker.


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Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh's Church in Borgloon, Belgium