"The Garden of Love" is a poem by English Romantic visionary William Blake. Blake was devoutly religious, but he had some major disagreements with the organized religion of his day. The poem expresses this, arguing that religion should be about love, freedom, and joy—not rules and restrictions. The poem is part of his famous collection Songs of Innocence and Experience, which was first published in 1789.
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The Full Text of “The Garden of Love”
1I went to the Garden of Love,
2And saw what I never had seen:
3A Chapel was built in the midst,
4Where I used to play on the green.
5And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
6And Thou shalt not. writ over the door;
7So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
8That so many sweet flowers bore.
9And I saw it was filled with graves,
10And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
11And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
12And binding with briars, my joys & desires.
The Full Text of “The Garden of Love”
1I went to the Garden of Love,
2And saw what I never had seen:
3A Chapel was built in the midst,
4Where I used to play on the green.
5And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
6And Thou shalt not. writ over the door;
7So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
8That so many sweet flowers bore.
9And I saw it was filled with graves,
10And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
11And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
12And binding with briars, my joys & desires.
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“The Garden of Love” Summary
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“The Garden of Love” Themes
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Love vs. Organized Religion
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Childhood vs. Adulthood
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Garden of Love”
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Lines 1-4
I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green. -
Lines 5-6
And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And Thou shalt not. writ over the door; -
Lines 7-8
So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore. -
Lines 9-10
And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be: -
Lines 11-12
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys & desires.
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“The Garden of Love” Symbols
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Flowers
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Graves and Tombstones
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“The Garden of Love” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Assonance
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Alliteration
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Consonance
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Caesura
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Polysyndeton
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Allusion
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End-Stopped Line
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Metaphor
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“The Garden of Love” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Midst
- The green
- Thou shalt not
- Writ
- Bore
- Rounds
- Briars
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Garden of Love”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Garden of Love” Speaker
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“The Garden of Love” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Garden of Love”
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More “The Garden of Love” Resources
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External Resources
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Illustration and Other Poems — A resource from the Tate organization, which holds a large collection of Blake originals. Here the poem can be seen in its original illustrated form.
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Blake's Radicalism — An excerpt from a documentary in which writer Iain Sinclair discusses Blake's radicalism.
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Blake's Visions — An excerpt from a documentary in which writer Iain Sinclair discusses Blake's religious visions.
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Full Text of Songs of Innocence and Experience — Various formats for the full text in which "The Garden of Love" is collected.
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A Reading by Allen Ginsberg — Beat poet Allen Ginsberg reads the poem.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by William Blake
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