The Garden of Love

This poem uses the deterioration of an Edenic garden to represent the corrupting effect of organised religion upon our internal state of being. Blakes The Garden of Love functions as a criticism upon organised religion, poignantly reflecting on its capacity to replace humanitys innocent joys with rules and empty routines. Stanza 1 The flesh Garden of Love almost appears hackneyed through its traditional, Edenic connotations. It is a representation of innocence, with park, open spaces often being associated with childhood in Blakes poetry.The speaker comments that they saw what they never had seen, which seems to imply that something material has changed external to themselves, namely the altered decorate that is subsequently detailed however, this poem, in the context of the Songs of Innocence and Experience, signises an internal fall from innocence, and it is therefore only the speakers position that has changed. The Church is then introduced as the object of the poets condemn ation, represented through the synecdoche of the Chapel.It is built in the middle, implying that organised religion is central to the corruption that infected the zeitgeist of the late 18th century. Furthermore, the aural suggestion of mist subtly evokes a somewhat disquieting image of the Chapel being shrouded in vapour, which is often a symbol of materialism in Blake and could therefore imply a preoccupation with wealth in Christianity. This contrasts with the green, a representation of childhood, where the speaker used to play, a verb with similar connotations.Stanza 2 The gates of the chapel ar said to be shut, suggesting that the religiosity of the Church is an exclusive privilege. Indeed, Blake was very critical of an institution which effectively heralds its clergy as closer to God than ordinary worshippers in his eyes, every human is equal before the innate(p) order. He extends his condemnation to the Old Testament in the subsequent line, commenting that Thou shalt not w as writ all over the door.This is an allusion to the Ten Commandments, which Blake deemed to be overly regulatory he instead put his faith into the new Testament, which conversely advises humanity as to how it should conduct itself, therefore placing a greater emphasis on freehanded will. The speaker then turns to the Garden of Love, unveiling a poignant tableau in which they realise that the green innocence of their youth, which so many sweet flowers bore, has become devastated beyond hope.The final stanza is extremely bleak, alluding to conclusion through its evocation of graves and tombstones, which have now replaced the flowers of the speakers youth. The poem ends with a rhyming couplet, whose swaying rhythm represents an never-ending cycle of innocence into experience, an idea reinforced by the use of language such as rounds and briars. The extension phone to priests confirms that this poem is an attack on organised religion, which has repressed our joys and desires. It t herefore serves to mentally imprison us, acting, along with the government, monarchy and early(a) formal institutions, as a fortification of experience.